On Citizen Science Day on April 6th, 2024, Citizen Science will take over the Natural History Museum, and you are all cordially invited to get to know and try out Citizen Science on this day. Come by and find out how citizen science works and where you can participate in research. The Citizen Science Day program is diverse and there is something for everyone! The visit is free for our conference participants. Admission for additional people is reduced to €14 and people under 19 can enter the museum for free on this day.
Deck 50: Biodiversity Platformer
What is probably Austria's largest video game will celebrate its premiere at Citizen Science Day on April 6th.
Starting this spring, you can digitally hop through your local landscape on the 11 meter long LED wall on Deck 50! In a jump 'n' run video game, visitors get to know the biodiversity of the Alps, the forest and the city.
The game is developed by mediators and researchers from the Natural History Museum Vienna in collaboration with the experienced citizen science platform SPOTTERON.
Contact:
Institutions: Natural History Museum Vienna & SPOTTERON
When: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m
Deck 50: The city is wild!
"Discover diversity: The city is wild!" initiates a collaboration between the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW) and the Citizen Science Platform Austria Research, coordinated by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). The Citizen Science Day premiere at NHMW focuses on urban wildlife and offers the opportunity to actively participate in citizen science projects. Deck 50 serves as a unique physical space for dialogue and exchange with the Austrian citizen science scene. The format includes short keynote lectures, open interaction phases with various stations and a final quiz. The partnership with “Österreich forscht” aims to promote participation, support networking and enable the presentation of current projects in thematic focus areas.
Contact: Österreich forscht www.citizen-science.at,
Institutions: Natural History Museum Vienna & University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna
When: 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m
Guides
Museum Goes Outdoor!
What flies, grows and weathers around the Natural History Museum?
Employees of the Natural History Museum Vienna step in front of the museum gates and explore the city wilderness together with you on short guided tours.
Only in good weather!
Duration: 30-40 mins
11:00 a.m. Bird stories about the NHM (Christof Viehauser, bird collection)
1:00 p.m. Paving cracks - Botany (Andreas Berger, Botany)
2:00 p.m. Building stones at Maria-Theresien-Platz (Monika Müller, science communication)
The journey of the Step Change project
Come join the Step Change team for some hands-on fun and learn how you can become a citizen scientist. You can find us in hall 16!
When: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m
Pint of Science
Once a year, Pint of Science brings research and science to the pub next door. For Citizen Science Day, we swap the city's bars for the exhibition halls of the Natural History Museum. During three interactive tours you will hear more about current citizen science projects and get to know the researchers personally.
11:00 a.m. Citizen Science Project Fossilfinder – Search Find Report, or what fossils tell us (Alexander Lukeneder, paleontology)
2:00 p.m. Citizen Science Project Prehistoric Weaving Techniques – Exciting facts from archeology and crafts (Karina Grömer, Prehistory)
3:00 p.m. Colonialism today?! What does it have to do with me? (Elena Ritschard, Science Communication & Helena Deiß, EDUCULT) (IN ENGLISH!)
Citizen science market stalls
In the museum you will find 25 citizen science market stalls throughout the day where you can find out information in German or English about a wide range of projects and initiatives from Austria and all over Europe. We invite you to visit the market stalls and get to know the people behind the projects and initiatives.
Expedition Soil - What is in the soil of your vegetable garden?
Have you ever wondered what's under your front lawn or under your vegetable garden? Have you ever wondered whether your soil has enough of the right nutrients, or whether your soil might be contaminated with toxic substances that you would rather not find in the strawberries, pumpkins, or herbs in your garden? Then we have just what you are looking for!
At our stand you have the opportunity to bring soil samples with you and analyze them yourself under our guidance (pH value, nitrite/nitrate content and soil type). We provide the test kits.
High-volume butterfly monitoring - observing butterflies for science
Immerse yourself in the exciting world of butterflies. From the small bluebird to the impressive swallowtail, you can marvel at different species and gain exciting insights into the life of butterflies. The diverse n Insects occur in a wide variety of habitats from valley to peak and can provide information about the state of our ecosystems. If you are interested, you can also find out how butterfly monitoring works and how you can get involved.
Austria conducts research Join in the research!
Citizen science projects invite interested people to get involved in scientific projects in different ways, without having to study for a long time. But how do you find these projects? The “Österreich forscht” platform has been in existence since 2014, where you can find many different projects. Currently, over 80 citizen science projects from all over Austria and from many different research institutions and from numerous disciplines welcome interested people to actively participate in research.
At “Österreich forscht – Research with us!”, we will work with you to find your personal citizen science project and answer any questions you have about citizen science. We will show you how to use the different functions on “Österreich forscht”. We can and will be happy to advise you personally so that you can find your fellow research project. You can also browse the projects on "Österreich forscht" on a large touchscreen, try out the filter function, get to know the blog and much more.
Find out more about “Austria researches” and citizen science and become part of a research team!
Virus Factory in Schools
We will be showing a school resource pack which is based on an online citizen science project "Science Scribbler: Virus Factory" on the Zooniverse. We will have tablets with access to the online project to explore the data and for visitors to contribute annotations/classifications to the project. We will also have an example of the resource box including 3D jigsaw puzzle, card matching game, and other materials to show to visitors.
Roadkill - animals on Austria's roads
Thousands of animals are killed in traffic in Austria every day. But which animal species are particularly affected by this and are there hotspots, i.e. places where there is an increased number of animals being run over? And what influence does the surrounding landscape or weather have?
The citizen science project Roadkill investigates these and other questions and everyone can join in the research! At our stand we would like to present the numerous possibilities for research and talk to you about your experiences with roadkills. Which animals do you see on your daily journeys? Several interactive elements make it easier to get started with the topic and at the same time show which animals are particularly often seen by visitors on the streets.
“A Liadl, ans üwa KI”
In a participatory project, together with citizen scientists, artists and AI experts, we collected pressing questions about artificial intelligence and creatively prepared answers to them in order to contribute to general AI literacy. A song was created in cooperation with the singer-songwriter Blonder Engel, “A Liadl, ans üwa KI”. You can hear this song including a music video at our stand! We have prepared the text in Upper Austrian dialect, English and standard German.
And then you are asked: Does the song speak to you? What other questions do you have about AI in your everyday life? What do you think everyone should know about AI? What can you do better than AI? Can you sing the song in other languages? Invent your own verse? Tell us, write, sing your opinion to us so that the “KI-Liadl” is as diverse as possible!
Which public engagement method is right for me?
The EU project EODOPEN makes previously hidden books and texts from the 20th and 21st centuries digitally accessible and involves the public. In the spirit of the term "public engagement", successful methods are presented that involve citizens from 11 European countries in the selection process of texts to be digitized. What methods did EODOPEN choose to negotiate questions of accessibility to digital knowledge resources? What methods do citizens use motivated to participate? What can other projects learn from EODOPEN? What approach can we use to involve citizens in our offerings, how do we come into contact with interested parties? Visitors complete an abstracted “personality test” to find out which method Participants can be involved in a specific or imagined project. First, the test determines which “personality” we are dealing with. This can refer to the actual personality of the visitors (cultural, technical, interested in community) or to the orientation of an institution. The aim is to compare the results of the test with (possible) public engagement methods and assign them to them in the sense of: Which method suits me best or our inventory/our content and stylistic orientation/who do we want to reach/address with our offers? In the interactive visualization "Pick Your Public Engagement Fruit", the results of the test are assigned to a public engagement approach - a fruit represents each method. Visitors take the test and are encouraged to assign themselves to a method based on the results. The fruits are placed in different places on a map of Europe (according to where the person lives/the location of the institution). The more participants complete the test, the more fruits are visible on the map of Europe.
#CO2 - Students communicate science
At our stand you will experience how students take up the topic of “carbon dioxide” and present it in their own way. In self-created social media posts, the students communicate various aspects of carbon dioxide. From hand-made experiments that make the invisible gas visible, to The topic area is presented in many ways on current problems. The products can be viewed, read and listened to as inspiration in order to create your own products based on small experiments around carbon dioxide.
Buildings and energy in focus: Expand the Coloring Dresden platform together
At the market stand, we would like to work with the guests to develop a component that is still available and get feedback: The energy tile, which collects information about buildings with a focus on energy on the Coloring Dresden platform.
There are 3 stations:
1. Try out the digital platform Coloring Dresden on the large touch screen/tablet and get your first mapping experience in Erlangen.
2. Collect and hierarchize possible energy topics (analogous front end construction from scraps of paper, voting with adhesive dots).
3. Capture the mood regarding data protection and the associated data aggregation (mockup selection of zoom factors in the city map at building, building block, district or grid level) using the direct example of the energy data mentioned.
Experts and citizen scientists can contribute their experiences and suggestions from the community about what is expected of the participants in order to fulfill the expectations of an energy tile. Together with the guests, we will work on a previously free module and get feedback for us: about the energy tile, what information about buildings with a focus on energy on the Coloring Dresden platform.
Interactive quiz on CITES and the identification of confiscated products
A wide variety of items and products confiscated by customs authorities on the subject of wildlife crime are clearly presented on the table provided. Visitors have the opportunity to take a closer look at leather and fur products and, with the help of the project team, determine whether the fashion products are reptile, bird or mammal leather and which species are affected. The Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Endangered Species (CITES) is also discussed in this context. Using question cards, visitors are asked in an interactive way to deal with the topic of international trade in connection with wildlife crime and species protection.
Visitors also have the opportunity to take part in a wildlife crime awareness survey using a QR code. The social media posts designed by students as part of the project to raise awareness of wildlife crime are played on a screen and information folders on the topic of wildlife crime, also designed by project students, are available for visitors to view freely.
A journey through ideas for a Blue Danube traveling exhibition and an interactive Public Lab at BOKU
We will forward an exclusive invitation to the visitors to become a key contributor to a groundbreaking initiative – the creation of a concept for a Blue Danube traveling exhibition and an interactive Public Lab at BOKU!
They will be kindly asked to provide their ideas and opinion about:
What do they think should be the key messages of these exhibitions?
What critical questions should these exhibitions answer for visitors?
We are preparing some interactivities to receive their responses written on small paper boats in the Floating Message Boats and on a magnetic puzzle piece from the Interactive Collaborative Puzzle Wall in our stand:
Floating Message Boats: Visitors write their key points or questions on the same topic on small paper boats. These message boats will float on a water table thus creating a water-inspired display symbolizing the flow of ideas along the Danube.
Interactive Stream Table Visitors will be invited to learn about river science and conservation principles with help of a stream table. Childr en and adults will be able to conduct experiments with flowing water. "How do rivers work", "how is a river bed formed" and many other things can be observed and tested hand-on with our stream table. This will give them an idea what the public lab could look like on a small scale. From their interactions and questions we will learn more about what the public lab should include and co-create is with our audience.
Interactive Collaborative Danube Puzzle Wall: Visitors create piece by piece a large magnetic puzzle wall featuring a map of the Danube by adding puzzle pieces with their personal approaches or questions related to the Danube, leading to a gradually emerging overall picture of the multiple human relationships with the Danube.
Citizen Science in Higher Education: Exploring the Opportunities, Challenges and Synergies; An interactive study with participants present at the ECSA 2024 conference
The interactive poster will enable us to learn from one another's experiences and collectively improve the integration of citizen science in higher education.
Are you fit to count wild birds - test your knowledge of European birds
As part of the CS project Hour of Winter Birds, laypeople count birds in settlement areas and report their observations to the LBV (State Association for Bird and Nature Conservation) and Birdlife Czech Republic (Czech Society for Ornithology, CSO). One source of error in the data is the participants' often inadequate knowledge of the species. We have therefore developed a bird quiz that gives us an idea of potential participants' knowledge of the species and gives participants a chance to test and improve their knowledge - which is exactly what we enable visitors to the market stand to do.
We provide background information on the Winter Birds' Participatory Activity Hour, show materials that will be handed out to participants during the campaign, and everyone can test their knowledge of bird species in a "game setting".
The power of citizen science
The European Citizen Science (ECS) project (funded by the EU in the Horizon Europe program) has the main goal of widening and strengthening the European citizen science community through capacity building and awareness-raising activities. This will be done by reaching out to many different audiences and stakeholders. In addition to being present during the scientific program, ECS offers a series of activities for different audiences who we expect will participate in the Citizen Science Festival. The activities will be organized as an interactive speed geeking session with 4 sessions, each dedicated to a specific audience and a specific topic.
CitiObs Community Board and Dynamic Word Cloud
CitiObs along with the 2 citizen science sister projects Greencage and Urban Relief will ask visitors of the market place to participate into the following activities:
1. Dynamic Word Cloud (Digital activity): Participants will be asked to submit 3 words that best answer the question "what are the 3 environmental factors that affect your everyday life and you would like to improve in your city?" i.e. air quality, noise, water etc.
2. Community Board – A map of Europe in which participants will be asked to pin an active citizen observatory of their knowledge.
3. We will showcase some Air Sensors which are on testing phase on CitiObs project.4. Leaflets from all 3 projects and slidedeck presentations per project and roll up banners per project.
Explore heat experiences together
1. Discuss and locate individual heat experiences on a map.
2.Measuring temperatures with sensors and smartphone (inside and outside, if possible)
Citizen Science Workshop
Equipment use of thermal cameras for the participants' own testing of the building's energy efficiency. Energy efficiency questionnaire. Workshop discussion sessions with people's feedback on Citizen Science pilots and its applications regarding the issue of energy transition.
Helping hands for a taxonomic transformation
In the context of the ECSA Conference Marketplace we launch two crowdsourcing transcription campaigns for herbarium specimens and written documents. Work stations are available for volunteers to transcribe the materials under the supervision of project staff, using digital transcription platforms.
Blue Gold + Sharing Water
You will have the opportunity to take an insight into the newly created educational game BLUE GOLD+ SHARING WATER on the subject of water and, if you are interested, to play along briefly. The card-based, analog game offers networked knowledge about the resource water, invites dialogue and the development of ideas for a change in the way we deal with the “blue gold”. The spatial installation of a “water knowledge case” with knowledge cards from the game also makes local and global connections understood as an interactive installation.
On the trail of the green toad
At our stand we present opportunities for research and invite adults and children to explore the occurrence of the Wechselkröte can be discovered in Austria, especially in Vienna. With playful elements, such as a quiz and a memory about green toads and other amphibians, we arouse interest in these fascinating animals. An interactive map allows you to explore suitable waters for green toads.
Art or AI?
The 'Art or AI?' Museum of Very Modern Art will have you scratching your head to figure out your Dalís from your DALL-Es. Browse the gallery. Ask yourself is this machine art or a Monet masterpiece. Mark your answers and check your scores.
AI-generated art tools like DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are changing how we view art and creativity. But as humans, how good are we at distinguishing a classic from an artwork generated by a machine? Share your thoughts on this rapidly-evolving technology: Is there anything AI can't do? Does it have a place when it comes to art and creativity? Where do you see things going from here?
Tea bag index - Citizen Science at AGES
The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) will present a variety of its citizen science tools and materials, including Soil Plastic App, Tea Bag Index App, Soil Quizz, Pollen Memory, Mosquito Alert App. A team from different AGES research groups will look after the interactive stand.
Measuring Air Quality with Students on Their Way to School
We present our new project where classes of students use portable air quality measuring devices and a smartphone app to measure the quality of the air (Particulate Matter, Temperature and Humidity, VOC) that they are exposed to on their way to school.
At the info booth it will be possible to live test our measuring devices and our smartphone app and check the air quality of the surroundings.
We will present our findings of the project as soon as possible and explain how to reproduce our equipment and how to set up similar projects in other locations.
NHM on Tour – Ida 001 electric cargo bike
The Natural History Museum of Vienna comes to citizens in the districts with an electric cargo bike. The "Ida 001" bicycle transports a multimedia station on the subject of light pollution, which invites people to take part in research and take part in social debates.
The project was funded by the Vienna Business Agency. A fund of the City of Vienna. The bicycle was funded by the Vienna Green Electricity Fund with the current funding for electric cargo bikes for companies.
"Jeanne", the marine restoration e-bike, an interactive workshop on wheels
Marine ecosystems are threatened around the world. We will present the marine restoration e-bike "Jeanne", an interactive outdoor workshop for children and also available for citizen science initiatives, our new tool for transformative change towards conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems.
Invasive plants
The rapid spread of invasive plant species (especially Solidago sp., Fallopia japonica, Impatiens glandulifera) is changing parts of the landscape and the species composition of animals and plants in our landscape. Within a very short time, monocultures are forming in places. Students researched the CSI PhenoBiota in the Sparkling Science project Connection between weather conditions and growth behavior of selected invasive plant species that spread quickly and uncontrollably. C.S.I. stands for Climate Science Investigation - "Looking for clues and examining invasive neophytes over the course of the year." The aim of "Research with plant newcomers" is to to explore successful dispersal strategies of these plants and to find out the best possible phenological point in time for optimal removal methods. Students, educators and experts jointly analyze the origin, distribution, growth behavior, location conditions and propagation options in nature and under laboratory conditions (rhizo boxes, closed vessels). Important aspects are possible uses, extent of damage and dangers for people, native species and habitats. Combat methods were tested at different locations over the course of the year and plant parts were examined under the microscope in order to use energy flows (e.g. starch storage) to find out when underground or above-ground growth or energy storage is stimulated. The experiments took place in school lessons, during research internships and field surveys. The findings will be incorporated into further projects and awareness-raising measures for the prevention and effective containment of invasive plant species in order to restore native biodiversity and to bring about a change in the careful use of plant materials and in their disposal so that hotspots of spread can be prevented in the future.
Dome conversation
Together with the "European Public Sphere" initiative, the OIS Impact Lab Caring Communities for Future is organizing a care tour in Austria in the summer of 2023 with five dome discussions in public spaces.
Under the roof of the mobile wooden dome, thoughts and ideas on the topic of care, care work and community were exchanged in dialogue with citizens and scientists. After a short look back at the Care Tour as a format for dialogue and citizen participation, we want to take a look at the future together with participants: Can such a dialogue format, such as the dome discussions that were carried out, make a contribution to the challenges of necessary social transformation? afford? How do we move from shared responsibility to new horizons of confidence? And how do we find what we need for the future and what we want to take with us into the future in an open, inclusive conversation? What role does science play in this?
CS Award 2024
Every year from April to the end of July, the OeAD, on behalf of the BMBWF, invites research-enthusiastic students, youth groups, but also adults and families from all over Austria to actively participate in research projects in the “Citizen Science Award” research competition. You will experience first-hand, how science works. This can break down barriers and prejudices and strengthen and build trust in and understanding of science. At the same time, the most committed citizen scientists can win prizes. To date, almost 22,500 citizen scientists have already taken part in 58 projects and more than 192,000 research contributions delivered!
Topics and activities:
Documenting plastic waste in the high mountains and in soils, transcribing old dialect words or researching bumblebee species: You can participate in selected projects from all research areas. The citizen scientists use digital and analogue methods to collect and analyze data, record observations, fill out questionnaires, etc.
All information about the participating projects and the diverse opportunities to get involved can be found on the OeAD's Young Science website every year from the end of January.
Categories and prices:
Citizens of all ages can take part in the research in the categories “school classes/youth groups”, “individuals” and “families”. School classes/youth groups win cash prizes of up to 1,000 euros, and individuals and families win non-cash prizes. The prizes are awarded every autumn as part of the Young Science Congress awarded.
The market stand informs interested citizen scientists about current projects and research opportunities. Researchers can also obtain information on how they can participate in the next Citizen Science Award with their project.
