Loon Citizen Science

Technological advancements have greatly improved the efficiency at which data can be processed. Ideally, all of Glacier’s citizen science programs, which currently rely heavily on pencil and paper input, would benefit from a technologically-based platform that would record participant’s observations, sort the data, and then display the results in a variety of ways with minimal downtime. Researchers would be able to spend more time using the data and participants could see the fruits of their labor in near real-time.

The purpose of the research is to provide an efficient and effective means of organizing citizen science data collection for the Common Loon Citizen Science Project. The development of a mobile application, integrated into Glacier National Park’s website would provide easy access for citizen science participants to engage in meaningful park research.