A Day for Science is just three days away!

Check out our Event Day Guide for what you need to know about the event.

We will have some signs on hand from the American Geophysical Union for those who come without.

If you have any other questions let us know and we’ll do our best to answer!

Though we’re fond of saying that every day is a day for science, our 2018 event is now only four days away. Our fingers are crossed, but right now the forecast is great, so we’re looking forward to a beautiful morning for science advocacy in Bienville Square.

Event details remain largely the same, with Dr. Kristine DeLong joining us as our sole keynote speaker, and most of our originally scheduled exhibitors still attending. (The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center and USACE Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise have conflicts.)

Make and bring your science-themed sign to enter the contest to win a copy of the Science, Not Silence commemorative book.

Look for our t-shirt giveaway on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

We can still use a few more event day volunteers – sign up on our Contact page.

Due to a forecast with a high chance of thunderstorms and wind, we are rescheduling A Day for Science. Please join us on Saturday, April 28th in Bienville Square from 9am-12pm.

While you’re sheltering from the April showers, enjoy some science on the aroma of rain!

Be sure to stop by Mobile Public Library’s MakerLab table on event day to enter their drawing for a SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for Arduino 3.1!

Did you know that A Day for Science coincides with Citizen Science Day? That’s one of the reasons why we’ll be featuring some of the great local citizen science opportunities you can get involved in; also, citizen science is just cool!

Citizen science is defined by SciStarter as “the public involvement in inquiry and discovery of new scientific knowledge.” In the 21st century, that often translates to crowdsourced data collection, though it can also include analysis and reporting. The internet makes it possible to easily collect data from many people in many different locations, and there is now a proliferation of websites and apps to make that data collection even easier. The resulting data sets are being used to support research and scientific publications, and to create some amazing and beautiful visualizations like the migration heat map taken from eBird, above!

Long-time birdwatchers will be familiar with this type of citizen science through Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count, which has been taking place for 117 years!

But citizen science isn’t just about counting individuals of a particular species. It can also help with environmental quality issues like identifying locations with storm water erosion, and tracking light pollution around the globe. Some citizen science projects even take the form of sophisticated online games like EVE Online, where you can help astronomers search for real-life exoplanets within EVE’s virtual universe.

SciStarter is great place to look for online projects you can contribute to, and simply to explore the variety of citizen science opportunities. As their What Is Citizen Science? page points out, citizen science can help to bridge gaps between scientists and motivated citizens; expand the scope of scientific data gathering; and cultivate a citizenship that is knowledgeable about the scientific enterprise who will be engaged advocates for science policy.

We hope you’ll be inspired to try citizen science, if you haven’t already! See you on Citizen Science Day!