Citizen science
You don’t need to have a university degree or be a professional scientist to take part in a proper scientific project. Citizen science involves members of the general public working on their own or assisting professional scientists or scientific institutions in their work, for example by reporting where they have seen particular species of birds or butterflies or flowers. Quekett members use their expertise in identifying organisms such as Cladocera (water-fleas) and mosses to contribute to recording schemes that are co-ordinated by the Biological Records Centre or to iRecord. Another way that volunteers can make a valuable contribution is by copying information from the labels of old specimens and slides in museums into databases, so that it becomes available to researchers.
A few projects have been under way for some time:
- Spotted-wing drosophila survey
- Transcribing slide labels
- Transcribing Postal Microscopical Society notebooks
The COVID-19 epidemic prompted us to start some other projects, to encourage members to engage with each other while we were unable to hold face-to-face meetings: