Do some research as part of the Citizen Science Festival

Wissen/Wissenschaft im Dialog/Chris Lawton

13.10.2020
Tip for autumn break: Do some research as part of the Citizen Science Festival

Brain City Berlin

Hey, amateur and want-to-be scientists: On 14 and 15 October 2020, the Citizen Science Festival invites children, young people, and adults to take part in a variety of exciting research projects at Berlin's Kulturbrauerei. Specifically, collect data and evaluate it together with professional scientists. The festival is taking place as part of the international "Knowledge for Change: Citizen Science SDG Conference" being held in Brain City Berlin. Admission is free.

What effects does light pollution, i.e. excess lighting of streets at night, have on the city's animal life, trees, or people's sleep? How are the city's bats faring? Or where's the highest nitrogen dioxide concentration in Berlin? It's on questions like these that the scientists will work closely with citizen participants. This “citizen science” adds a completely new dynamic and different perspectives to research projects around the world, even here in Brain City Berlin.

The Citizen Science Festival being held 14 and 15 October 14 in the courtyard of Berlin's Kulturbrauerei will provide participants interactive insights into particularly exciting national and international citizen science projects. As the name suggests, children, young people, and adults can actively contribute as citizen scientists at the two-day event: they can collect data on site and evaluate the results together with scientists. This may then even flow into measures that will help Germany meet the United Nations' global sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A total of seven national and international projects will be available for visitors to take part in at the festival. The projects include the search for traces of the garden dormouse, already extinct in many regions of Germany, collecting and documenting plastic waste on the banks of streams and rivers, and measuring the nitrogen content in Berlin's air. Other projects will be presented on an online marketplace.

The Citizen Science Festival is part of the international "Knowledge for Change: Citizen Science SDG Conference," a hybrid event taking place at the Kulturbrauerei and online. Objective of the conference: To present, evaluate, and discuss the contribution of citizen science to shaping and achieving the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

The festival is organized by the nationwide initiative "Wissenschaft im Dialog". Partners are the Museum for Natural History Berlin and the European Citizen Science Association (ecsa). The festival is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Commission.

The Citizen Science Festival is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 14 and 15 October 2020. In addition to the information stands for individual research projects, the agenda also includes workshops, excursions in the neighbourhood, and a scavenger hunt for children. Admission is free, registration is not necessary. Due to limits on the number of participants, there may be waiting times at the entrance. (vdo)