Hi everybody! This is Janine here. I wanted to take time this week to share a website that
I really enjoy going on, not just for myself but for my students to do as well. This
this website is called zooniverse, zooniverse.org. The link is listed below. In zonniverse- this is a
website in which you can participate in different scientific research projects even if you're not
a professional scientist. As you scroll down you can see there's a lot of different
things here to participate in. But, the place I really want to show you is in projects. So, if you
click on projects and you scroll down, you can see there are lots of different types of subjects that
you can participate in. So, for me being a science teacher and one who loves astronomy, I go right to
the space ones. If you scroll down here, you can see there are lots of different projects you can
participate in. Don't forget to look at the second page as well. I've done Planet Four, I've done
Supernova Hunters. I'm going to back out here and I want to show you this one. This one's called
Mapping Historic Skies. I really like this one because it directly relates to my channel -
helping to identify constellations. So, let's go take a look at that one.
All right. So, now I want to sign into zooniverse. If you are interested in this opportunity to
participate in citizen science I encourage you to register and then what this will do
is keep track of all the classifications you've done over time. So, when I flip here you can see
this is my avatar and it's telling me how many classifications I've made over the years.
You can scroll and hover over these different colored bars and it'll tell you
which ones you have participated in. So, this one is a Plankton One really like and Galaxy Zoo
is another one i've done a lot of. But, the project I want to share with you is called-
let's go to projects. I'm going to go to astronomy or space and the one I wanted to share
with you today is called Mapping Historic Skies. This helps researchers identify constellations
on different celestial maps. I thought, "This is perfect. I have to share this with people on my
channel," because it would give you an opportunity to check it out. i'm really surprised at how
fast this project is getting completed. So, when I first checked this out, or I found it about, a
week ago it was, you know, the bar was down here at like 7. Now it's all the way up to 77.
So I'd love for you guys to jump on and learn a little bit more about this project so you can
help contribute to scientific research. You can learn about the projects by clicking on about
and it tells you about the research the team different publications about it and
faqs. But, the meat of these projects really happens in the classify button. So, when you click classify
you are asked to complete a task. Here it's asking me if I know the name of this constellation.
Before you even begin the tasks, it's a really good idea to take a look at the tutorial.
This will walk you through what you need to do for this particular project.
Every project has its own tutorial. Some tasks are really quick and you can go through them
like the Plankton ones. That's why I've done so many of them. It is because it's really easy to do.
Galaxy Zoo is one that's really easy for me to go through. But, some are a little bit more elaborate.
So, for this one it asks if you know the name of this constellation. I do. It looks like Pegasus.
I can see the name right here. I can see it's really close to Cygnus as well
and Andromeda is right here. So, I would say yes. I'm gonna. I know the name and I would write Pegasus.
Sometimes the the maps here are in a different language, so I just write
the words that I see. If you have a question about it, you can always
click on this, you can ask some questions and somebody will reply back to you.
This task isn't quite finished because it asks if you think the box drawn around
the constellation needs to be reviewed. Well, does the crop need to be adjusted?
Well there's not much more they can do here. Does it include multiple constellations?
It doesn't. So, you can say done and talk about it and ask some questions, or you can just say done.
Here is another one. Do I know the name of this constellation?
I'm gonna turn my head. It looks like a fish of some sort. Im gonna say that this would be Pisces or at
least a part of Pisces for two reasons. One, Pisces is located right next to to Pegasus in the sky.
You can kind of see that looks like there's a little rope around this tail, so I would say I
know the name of it. I'm gonna say it's Pisces. I don't think this constellation
crop up needs adjustment to better match the constellation. I would say
it's a little too small, because it doesn't include the entire constellation.
Then, I would say done. So that's how this project works. I also want you to notice,
that right here is, this blue bar of announcements. This will give you some updates on the project
as it goes. I've also noticed that when i do it on my phone, the tasks look a little different.
But, whenever I do work on zooniverse, I pretty much work off my computer desktop because
it's just easier. It's just easier to see. So, I encourage you to explore zooniverse. There are so
many different projects that you can participate in. It doesn't just have to be about space
although i'm very partial to that subject. There's plenty of other subjects you can look at as well. I
spend a lot of time in the biology ones because I am also a biology teacher, so it makes sense for me
to spend some time there. But, in terms of the ones with astronomy I really, really love Galaxy Zoo.
Here's Galaxy Zoo, I've done Solar Storm Watch- but there's just a lot to look
at. You can help just get a glimpse into what is the different research
that's going on out there right now. This is a really big help to many scientists out there.
So, thanks so much for watching. I hope this was really interesting for you to learn a little bit
more about. Remember just keep going outside. It takes time practice and patience to study the sky.
It's something that humans have been doing for thousands of years and you can help participate in
the sky watcher project to help other scientists. I will see you guys next week. Take care!