What is Community Science?

There is a long history of public participation in science. In fact, prior to the late 19th century, most scientific research was conducted by untrained, yet passionate, people. Today, we use the term community scientist (also known as citizen scientist) to describe volunteers who collect data for research but who are not professional scientists.

There has been public involvement in monarch community science programs since the 1950s. There are numerous community science programs that focus on different aspects of monarch biology, including migration, population dispersal, parasites, and overwintering. Find out more about them here.