Citizen science is public participation in scientific research. Share the infographic with students and ask them to describe citizen science in their own words. Ask them: Which of these projects would you most want to participate in? What other topics would you like to study through citizen science?

Pair students and ask each pair to select one of the citizen science projects listed. Explain that they will need to find out more about the project by looking it up online. Finally, have students select an additional citizen science project (one not listed on the infographic) and create an infographic about it. Use SciStarter.org, CitizenScience.gov, Zooniverse.org, or other sites and search engines to find projects.

Learn how to engage students of all ages as global citizen scientists through National Geographic's free online course, Learning Through Citizen Science. Find out more and sign up for the course in English here or in Spanish here.