As my chemistry students know, contributions to science may be made by anyone. You don't have to be a "scientist". Some projects are so complex that scientists enlist the help of average Joes (and Sallys) to collect or analyze data. This is known as citizen science.
These projects can be as simple as collecting weather information or counting pieces of trash or bird species. These observations are then sent in through the internet where the data is looked at by computers.
Some projects have large amounts of data collected already, but for some reason or another, the information is not suited to computer analysis. Regular people are asked to join in to plow though and make identifications.
My favorite site for this is Zooniverse. It started with simple identifications of galaxies from pictures taken by telescopes, but has grown into a wide variety of projects that need assistance. Here are some of my favorites:
Operation War Diary - Copying over WWI soldiers diaries and letters (very topical)
Old Weather - Searching through old log books from sailing ships to record weather from hundreds of years ago
Notes from Nature - Go through old museum collections of plants and insects and add searchable tags
These are fun just in themselves. Also, extra credit. Keep a log of your time spent on these projects. If you do a total of 4 hours in a quarter, you can claim extra credit!
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