Discover Citizen Science

Discover Citizen Science!

Free workshops around Adelaide and South Australia for people aged over 50 (see locations below).

You can help create new proteins to prevent or treat disease. You can help discover new planets and learn how to classify galaxies. You can identify animals in Africa from the comfort of your home or record plants and wildlife in your local area. Globally, there are now thousands of “citizen science” projects and many millions of participants. Locally, there are many projects that you can join, with or without experience. It doesn’t matter who you are, there is likely to be a citizen science project that will interest you!

Citizen science is a way that scientists and the wider community form partnerships to conduct research. Your participation can be valuable for the scientists, helping them to conduct research that would be difficult without the help of “citizen scientists”. And while you are contributing to citizen science projects, you can gain skills, meet like-minded people, and learn new things along the way.

In these workshops, Dr Philip Roetman will introduce you to citizen science and a variety of projects. Some projects will include outdoor activities, while others can easily be done indoors. Some projects won’t take long, while others are longer-term. Some projects can be done alone, while others are better with groups or grandchildren! Philip will show you how to find projects and demonstrate a few of his favourites.

Philip will first introduce some projects that he has chosen; then he will demonstrate further projects, with a more hands-on approach and with the specific interests of the group in mind. The workshops are free and are for people aged over 50.

Come along and learn how to fold proteins for biomedical research. Come along to help track the changes in the ranges of plants and animals. Come along to learn how to build your own wildlife catalogue, for your home or for a park. Come along to learn how to record and identify frog calls. Come along to become a citizen scientist!

We have workshops in Adelaide, Marion, Mount Barker, Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln, and Salisbury - come along to one near you.

The workshops are run by UniSA's Discovery Circle initiative and supported by Office for the Ageing, SA Health.

Find the workshop closest to you:

Adelaide (city option 1):

• Register to attend both sessions: Tuesday 23rd & Tuesday 30th January
• Both sessions are two hours: 10am - 12pm
• The State Library of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide

Adelaide (city option 2):

• Register to attend both sessions: Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th April
• Both sessions are two hours: 10am - 12pm
• Hawke Building (H6-10: Level 6 Room 10), University of South Australia City West Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide

Marion:

• Register to attend both sessions: Thursday 25th January & Thursday 1st February
• Both sessions are two hours: 10am - 12pm
• Cove Civic Centre, 1 Ragamuffin Drive, Hallett Cove

Mount Barker:

• Register to attend both sessions: Wednesday 14th & Wednesday 21st February
• Both sessions are two hours: 10am - 12pm
• Mount Barker Bowls Club, 27 Mann St, Mount Barker

Mount Gambier:

• Register to attend one session: Monday 16th April
• Workshop time: 10am - 1pm
• University of South Australia, 155 Wireless W Road, Mount Gambier

Port Lincoln:

• Register to attend one session: Friday 9th March
• Workshop time: 10am - 1pm
• Eyre Peninsula NRM, 86 Tasman Terrace, Port Lincoln

Salisbury:

• Register to attend both sessions: Tuesday 13th & Tuesday 20th February
• Both sessions are two hours: 10am - 12pm
• Salisbury Council (Committee Room 1), 12 James St, Salisbury

To register, click the "Register" button on the top of this webpage (on a mobile device the button may be below this text and it may be called "tickets").

About the presenter

Dr Philip Roetman has been involved in running innovative citizen science projects and events since 2007. These projects have engaged thousands of citizen scientists in activities like counting koalas, tracking cats, spotlighting in rockpools, and recording bat calls. The data collected have been useful in understanding the distributions of species, the home-ranges of domestic pets, the management of abundant species, and the locations of threatened species. Since 2013, Philip has been running the Discovery Circle (www.discoverycircle.org.au). This initiative is running citizen science projects, interactive workshops and generating online content to promote connection with local natural environments and to make valuable contributions to scientific research. Current citizen science projects include BioBlitz events, Cat Tracker, Edible Gardens, FlukerPosts and Goanna Watch.