Real experiments

ScienceAtHome is a diverse team of scientists, data scientists, game developers, designers and visual artists. They create fun scientific games, with the aim of revolutionising scientific research and teaching by game-play.

This is a citizen science project which aims to investigate the role and effectiveness of biodegradable and compostable packaging. The first part of the experiment is a short survey: to find what the public think of biodegradable plastics, what they do with them, and if you ever compost them yourself. If you do engage in composting, there is a second part to the experiment. Place a few biodegradable plastic items in your compost under controlled conditions, and then report back to us about whether they compost or not.

By taking part in theexperiment, you will be helping to determine the viability of biodegradable and compostable plastics. The data collected will feed into a Live Composting Map, a live map of home composting activities across the UK.

Explore galaxies near and far, sampling a fraction of the roughly one hundred billion that are scattered throughout the observable Universe. Each one of the systems, containing billions of stars, has had a unique life, interacting with its surroundings and with other galaxies in many different ways; the aim of the Galaxy Zoo team is to try and understand these processes, and to work out what galaxies can tell us about the past, present and future of the Universe as a whole.

Galaxy Zoo is used in classrooms worldwide in a variety of ways to introduce young people and students to the amazing world of astronomy. Volunteers are trained to identify clusters, and then are given image data to classify. No special software is needed, just a web browser.

You can read about the papers written from the project which are listed at Zooniverse.org/publications.

Zooinverse hosts a variety of similar projects, such as classifying solar storms or asteriod hunting, so you can pick your interest.

A citizen science project about safeguarding the future of our amazing marine wildlife. There are a variety of ways to get involved, such as collecting data on vulnerable marine habitats, or monitoring threats like marine litter and non-native invasive species.

Taking part is a great excuse to get outdoors, and doesn't require specialist knowledge or skills. No matter how much time you have to spare, you'll be making a valuable contribution to wildlife conservation across the Solent and beyond.

The EyeOnWater website and free Apps help you to assess theColour and Clarity of natural waters. Water colour indicates the algae and organic content of the water that feeds organisms. Your observations are therefore valuable to scientists and water authorities. Help classify rivers, lakes, coastal waters, seas and oceans on it's colour (it can be used for both fresh and saline natural waters).

Enjoy beautiful pictures of space while also helping to organise data. Cities at Night is a citizen science project that aims to create a map, similar to Google maps, of the earth at night using night time colour photographs taken by astronauts onboard the ISS.

Astronauts out in space easily take hundreds of photographs of earth and although some of those contain carefully selected frames, focus and exposure, many of the pictures are taken automatically so that the astronauts can continue working on their experiments.

NASA has a database with almost half a million pictures taken by the astronauts on the International Space Station.To organise all this data with the use of computers would be infeasible since it would take extremely complex algorithms to interpret the photographs.

The human eye, however, knows immediately if the camera was pointing at a city or simply at the stars. You can take part by using the Lost at Night app.

The Globe at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting everyone to measure their night sky brightness and submit their observations from a computer or smart phone. Light pollution threatens not only our “right to starlight”, but can affect energy consumption, wildlife and health. More than 200,000 measurements have been contributed from people in 180 countries over the last 14 years, making Globe at Night the most successful light pollution awareness campaign to date!

ZSL’s Instant Wild empowers you to take part in vital conservation work by bringing you live images and videos from amazing locations all around the world to identify. You don’t need any special expertise to take part – help is provided in handy Field Guides – simply sign up and start tagging the animals in the images. Your involvement will not only contribute to conservation but you’ll also get a window into the some of the world’s wildest places.

Capture wild microbesand turn them into bread – for science! To make your own sourdough starter, all you need is flour, water, and a little bit of time. The microbial world is still full of mysteries. Some of the answers might be lurking in your kitchen. We know more about the deep sea than we do about some of the bacteria and fungi that are most important to us, partially because they can be so difficult to study. The microbial communities in sourdough are comparatively easy to grow and study, so understanding sourdough can help us untangle some of the mysteries of the microbial world. Once you have made your starter, you to observe it and record some observations about its aroma and how fast it rises. You will submit this data through a short online questionnaire through the website. Even if your starter fails, your data is wanted!

GLOBE Observer: Clouds is an app-based tool that will help you document what you see in the sky. Once you have downloaded the app and created an account, the Clouds tool (including the Clouds Wizard if you wish to use it) will guide you through the observation process. Required data includes providing your location, reporting on overall cloud cover and surface conditions that can impact satellite observations. Optional (but very useful) data include cloud types, cloud opacity, sky conditions and visibility, then taking photos of what you see in the sky. Even a basic observation without optional elements is valuable!