Professor Scott Smedley (Biology Department at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut), colleagues in Information Technology, and Trinity research students have teamed together to develop an on-line citizen science project through which the public can participate in actual ecological research. Participants identify animals in images from an experiment exploring the effects that residential composting has on wildlife behavior. We suspect that veterans, due to their well-developed observational abilities, would be particularly skilled citizen scientists and additionally could receive educational and other benefits from their involvement.
A pilot study, running through fall 2014, looked at the reactions of veterans as they viewed representative images from the ecological study. Participants helped to refine a proposed nation-wide program to involve veterans in ecological research through citizen science.
We are currently conducting a follow-up study to the pilot, to further explore our findings. The focus of this new study is to determine how viewing images from the ecological study influence the stress response in veterans.
Initial contact with participants is done over the phone by Nicole Evancha, the project’s research assistant. During a one-hour interview at the Trinity College Counseling Center, veterans record their responses to a sample of real images from the ecological study and take several common psychological assessments. Participants are monitored by a galvanic skin response and provide two saliva samples for stress hormone analysis. A licensed clinical psychologist is on-site in the unlikely event that a participant experiences discomfort during the study. Participants receive a $20 gift card to Subway or Dunkin Donuts for their time.
To register for this research study, click here.
To view a PDF of the consent form for the study, click here Veterans Study Informed Consent Form
To download directions to where you will meet o n the Trinity College campus, click the link below:
Directions to Trinity College Meeting Location
We thank you for your time and interest in our pilot study! With good participation by local veterans in this current pilot, we hope to convince the National Science Foundation to fund a citizen science program that will benefit not only regional veterans, but veterans nationwide.