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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1998)
§Jg The Battalion Frontiers m mm ■ m Wkm mm Monday • April- -Mon Research goes to the birds Science understanding monitored through citizen scientists By Katherine Arnold Special to The Battalion While most of the sciences in volve hours of tedious labor in a lab oratory taking measurements, con ducting experiments and analyzing data, the Cornell Lab of Ornitholo gy based at Cornell University has a different approach — letting volun teers across the country collect data by looking out their back window. Such projects include Project FeederWatch, Classroom Feeder- Watch, Project Pigeon Watch and the Cornell Nest Box Network. For a small fee (about $20), amateur bird watchers receive educational mate rials about the project and direc tions for recording information about the types of birds they see and their activities. Participants then submit their findings back to ornithologists at Cornell. These types of projects, often re ferred to as “citizen science,” hope to both foster science education and provide a valuable resource of data collection, said Dr. Bruce Lewenstein, associate professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, who is also in volved in evaluating the effective ness of these projects as a way to foster scientific understanding. “These projects have as their goal some attempt to popularize science; that is, to make science more accessible to nonscientists,” Lewenstein said. “It gives people a sense of being involved in a project that has meaning.” And, in fact, the projects are meaningful. The information col lected is used to track trends in pop ulations, activity cycles and breed ing habits. “Wed like to think that citizen science is a way to tap into people’s enthusiasm,” he said. Lewenstein spoke to students and faculty at Texas A&M on Thurs day about citizen science projects and their function as ways to pro mote scientific understanding. His visit was sponsored by the Center for Science and Technology Policy and Ethics at Texas A&M University. Lewenstein’s work with one of the projects, the Cornell Nest Box Net work, involves assessing what the bird watchers learn by participating in the project. The evaluators look at bird knowledge, environmental attitude, overall perceptions and.at titudes toward science by having participants fill out evaluation forms and by interviewing partici pants via telephone or mail. Pre liminary results have shown that this citizen science project ap proach has been useful. Beyond the success of the local projects, these results at some point will be compared to overall scientif ic understanding, Lewenstein said. “We need to understand the re lationship between these individual local projects and the global level of science literacy,” he said. Projects such as these fill a need for fostering scientific understand ing, said Dr. Susanna Priest, associate professor of joumalism at Texas A&M and director for the Center of Science and Technology Policy and Ethics. “There is a strong and widely recognized need for more ways to involve nonscientists in making de cisions about science and science policy,” she said. “People who are not scientists need to be able to re late science to their everyday lives or they may not see the value in sci entific research.” Several odier projects work to in corporate nonscientists into scientif ic research. The Globe Program is a government-sponsored program that involves ordinary citizens in en vironmental research. For children, the National Geographic Kids Net work works with schools to develop curricula to turn kids into scientists by having them collect rain samples, study solar energy and look at prob lems cities face with trash disposal. Programs like this are most suit ed to the natural sciences, said Gene Charleton, science writer for the communications division of the Texas Engineering Experiment Sta tion, and have been applied in as tronomy and archaeology. “Look around and think of how many political decisions are based on scientific questions,” Charleton said. “People need to understand science to make good decisions.” Lewenstein said he hopes more citizen science projects can be cre ated to provide an opportunity for the nonscientist to learn more about the scientific community. “You’re not just talking to people about science, you’re engaging peo ple in science,” he said. “You learn not only what science is capable of, but what it’s not capable of.” For more information on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology bird watching projects, visit the Web site at birdsource.cornell.edu. On to the millineum Bruce Blair, a senior computer science major, calibrates the light sensors on his robot before a runi demonstration in the Bright building Friday afternoon. PC sales still moving upward SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite fears of cooling de mand and swollen inventories, the personal computer in dustry has continued to grow this year. Appetite for inexpensive PCs helped push growth of worldwide and U.S. shipments into the double digits during the January-May period, according to two mar ket research companies: International Data Corp. and Dataquest Inc. “We believe... end user demand is healthy.! issues that are making things interesting. - Hause, an analyst with I DC in Mountain Vim. Domestic shipments grew 16 percent durj: quarter compared with the same period a y« cording to Dataquest, based in San Jose. IDCi 14 percent gain. Shipments worldwide rose 1 according to Dataquest, and 10 percent, accoi ^ uie at ]\tatrt|{gate www. t !»«*«■ u«> pool. com Student Specials Monday FREE FOOL Students over 21 it/ valid A&M ll) minimum 1 drink purchase Wednesday Ladies Free Pool 6 p.m. to close Drink Specials $1.00 Well & $2.00 Can Drinks evety night tit 9:00 fSATTALION Tiffany Inbody, Editor in Chief News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in the Division of Student Publications, a unit of the Department of Journalism. News offices are in 013 Reed McDonald Building. Newsroom phone: 845-3313; Fax: 845-2647; E-mail: batt@unix.tamu.edu; Website: http://battalion.tarnu.edu Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply spon sorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 845-2696. For classi fied advertising, call 845-0569. Advertising offices are in 015 Reed McDonald, and office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Fax: 845-2678. Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. Mail subscriptions are $60 per school year, $30 for the fall or spring semester and $17.50 for the summer. To charge by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express, call 845-2611. The Battalion (ISSN #1055-4726) is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall spring semesters and Monday through Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University. Second class postage paid at College Station,TX 77840. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Battalion, 015 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1111. rtzzi) coLzatvES gologg emgs & MORE $5 minimum delivery Pizza Bar & Chill OPEN LATE 7 DAYS A WEEK FAST - FREE - DELIVERY 76GUMBY (764-8629) COLLEGE STATION Limited Delivery Area BEER BILUGRBS T.O. 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See our web site a come by Bkxakcr 224 for more information. English Department - Writing Programs Office 845-9936 http://www.english.tamu.edu/wprograms/credit210.html NOW IN THE AFTERNOON! Radio News from the newsroom of campus and community news 1:57 p.m. Monday through Friday on KAMU-FM 90.9 College Station / Bryan COMING home to Houston this Summer? "VISIT" UH - Clear Lake Now it's easier than ever To enroll at UH-CLear Lake TASP and College Algebra waived for " visitors". Nine, five and three week sessions. Full/part-time, day/evening schedule. Student f riendly services. ❖ Apply via the WWW ❖ Register by phone ❖ Pay by credit card Get prerequisites, out of the way Complete math/science credits Advance, faster toward your degree For a catalog, schedule and application, call us at (281) 283-2520 or check us out at WWW.cl.uh.edu/admissions Ask about "visiting" this summer. lUniversity of Houston Clear Lake! 2700 Bay Area Boulevard 1 louslon, Texas 77058 MSC L.T. Jordan Institute for International Awareness fco\.Y\etf By: Chris Cook Are you interested in learning more about Danish Culture? Do you want to know mo|e about Denmark's contributions to th# <k If you answered “yes” to these questions, then come to this Fellows Presentation! EUdmp 2fo4t* AJkdmwdiJ For More Information or to inform us of your special needs please call the Jordan Institute at 845-8770 or stop by MSC 223-1