Facilitating Growth, Innovation, and Positive Outcomes in Citizen Science

The field of citizen science is growing rapidly and is making important contributions to science, education, and society. However, the field must overcome several obstacles to reach its full potential. The Citizen Science Association is a new organization intended to help overcome some of these obstacles. This presentation will describe challenges facing the field of citizen science how the association plans to help address them. I will discuss plans to increase the understanding and integrity of citizen science; facilitate cross-disciplinary communication to foster rapid innovation; and improve the use of citizen science to achieve scientific, learning, and social outcomes.