When the Philadelphia Eagles face the New England Patriots on Sunday, look for the brains on the sidelines. A combined THIRTY Super Bowl cheerleaders are currently pursuing careers in STEM. Fifteen on the Patriots side and fifteen on the Eagles side. Below, two former cheerleaders share their picks for Citizen Science on Super Bowl Sunday!
Cheers!
The SciStarter Team
Allison, a former Eagles cheerleader with degrees in Biology and Chemistry, recommends...
My pick is any one of the five eagle-related citizen science projects on SciStarter. If you're in Colorado, Arizona or Florida, you can help scientists monitor bald eagle nests.
If you're in Philadelphia, you can photograph THE Eagles at the Super Bowl parade on Tuesday!! (Whoop, whoop! E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!)
Other great projects for Philadelphia Eagles fans include:
Philly TreeMap
Add basic information about a tree near you to the Philly TreeMap database and discover what tree it is and what its environmental and economic impact is to the region. Get started!Location: North America
NASA CloudApp
NASA/GLOBE
Even though It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ;), help NASA ground-truth cloud observations with your phone. Use the app to take pictures and classify clouds above you. Get started!Location: Global
C-BARQ
Complete a questionnaire about your dog to help UPenn researchers learn more about canine behaviors. (This one's for the Underdogs, of course!) Get started!Location: Global
Theresa, a former Patriots cheerleader with a degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (she's currently pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology at Harvard) recommends...
You can do numerous projects in Massachusetts, but I recommend DeepEmoji, to help scientists at MIT (where I used to work!) understand more about Artificial Intelligence through emojis you Tweet... like all those happy faces we'll be Tweeting on Sunday! ???
Other recommendations for New England fans:
Volunteer Science
Participate in Northeastern University's online games for social scientific research, from wherever you are! Get started!Location: Global
New England Basking Sharks Project
Share your sightings to help scientists monitor the local populations and their migration patterns of Basking Sharks. Get started!Location: Global
TreeVersity
Harvard Arboretum's new online project needs your help to classify online plant images and help build a massive plant database. Get started!Location: Global
Meet the Science Cheerleaders
The Science Cheerleaders are current and former NFL and NBA cheerleaders pursuing STEM careers. More than 200 Science Cheerleaders playfully challenge stereotypes, inspire young women (including the nation's 3 million youth cheerleaders) to consider STEM careers, and engage people from all walks of life in citizen science through SciStarter. They helped lead Space Microbes, a citizen science project on the International Space Station, created the Science of Cheerleading ebook (free on iTunes), advised on the production of NBC Sports Science of NFL Football series, and set a Guinness World Record for the World's Largest Cheerleading Cheer (they cheered for science, of course).
The Science Cheerleaders will perform and lead citizen science activities at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, the Philadelphia Science Festival, the Cambridge Science Festival and other events in the coming months.
Discover more citizen science on the SciStarter calendar. Did you know your SciStarter dashboard helps you track your contributions to projects? Complete your profile to access free tools. Want even more citizen science? Check out SciStarter's Project Finder! With 1100+ citizen science projects spanning every field of research, task and age group, there's something for everyone!
