Wisconsin Science Festival Virtual Kickoff Party

 

2026 Wisconsin Science Festival Virtual Kickoff Party April 16 | 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Ready to start making plans for the fall? Just want to learn more? Join us for networking and conversation about the 16th annual Wisconsin Science Festival! Click here to register for virtual kickoff party! Hear from the WSF team and a few special guests about updates for 2026 Hear about this year's festival feature Learn how and when to submit your 2026 events Grab your lunch and bring your ideas and questions Win prizes! The Wisconsin Science Festival aims to inspire and engage us in the enterprise of science and discovery; to promote innovation and to cultivate the next generation of global citizens. In 2025, over 53,000 people participated in events throughout 56 counties in Wisconsin. (View the 2025 annual report!) Additional opportunities from our festival partners: If you have content you’d like to share or include in the Wisconsin Science Festival, our friends at Badgerland Learning Days have a great opportunity for you to test your material or programs with youth and families this spring! See more details on how to include your organization in another great celebration of learning. Help us make this year’s Wisconsin Science Festival even more impactful! We’ve put together a short pre-festival survey to better understand your needs, ideas, and what support would make hosting your event even smoother and more fun. Your feedback helps shape the experience not just for you, but for communities across the state. It only takes a few minutes, and it makes a big difference. Thanks for being such an essential part of the festival!

Get Outside This Spring with BioBlitz

Lingering winter got you down? It’s time to think of bioblitzing! 

You, your family, and your learners can
celebrate Earth Day with the Center for Great Lakes Literacy’s/Sea Grant 7th Annual Great Lakes BioBlitz! This event is a great opportunity to engage youth and the public in community science, collect data to support biodiversity research and conservation, and learn more about the organisms in the Great Lakes Basin.

What is the Great Lakes BioBlitz?

A free event that focuses on finding and identifying as many wild, living things as possible in the Canadian provinces and the U.S. states that have coastline on the Great Lakes during a specified period of time. You need not be in the Great Lakes basin watershed to participate, just in a Great Lakes state or province.

When is it?

It begins on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2026, and runs for 4 weeks, ending on Saturday, May 23, 2026.

How do I participate?

The beauty of this project is that you decide your level of participation! Take an afternoon to explore and document some plants or wildlife in an area, or pick a location to return to weekly, or set a goal to find something new every day–there are many ways to participate. 

1. Visit iNaturalist or download the app onto your phone and create an account.  
2. Become a member of the 2026 Great Lakes BioBlitz project
3. Get outside, get out your cameras, and start making and posting observations!

[Additional action: As you are able, verify other participants' Great Lakes BioBlitz Project postings to make them “research grade.”]

Why participate? 

There are many benefits of becoming a BioBlitz wizard, here are just a few:

• Engage in an outdoor activity, discover the wild living things in the world around you, form and strengthen a place-based connection
• Join a global community of observers, learners, and scientists passionate about biodiversity and the Great Lakes
• Contribute to a global database of organisms. Observations made on iNaturalists contribute to research, conservation, and educational outreach programs

And please note: you don't need to bioblitz for four weeks – you can do it for an hour, a day, etc.

Want to learn more?

• Visit the Great Lakes BioBlitz Educator Google Site for more information about the project and educator resources for engaging youth in this wonderful learning experience!
• All the links for the BioBlitz are also available on the WiSG Webpage.

Want to help market this event to others? 

Her are some resources to help you get the word out:

• 2026 BioBlitz Poster 
• 2026 BioBlitz Challenges 
• 2026 BioBlitz Social Media Post

CSLP Citizen Science Webinar Opportunity

 

SciStarter helps bring together millions of curious and concerned people in the world; the thousands of opportunities to engage in real-world research questions in collaboration with researchers, communities, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable people to pursue and enjoy these activities while learning and accelerating important research. Together, we can help answer questions that cannot be answered alone. When we’re all involved, the science is better.

Learn More Here

Community Driven Science Adventure(s) at Your Library this Summer! Join SciStarter, STAR Net and the National Girls Collaborative Project to gain ideas and resources for connecting public engagement in scientific research with this year’s Collaborative Summer Library Program theme: Adventure Begins at Your Library™. From counting pollinators and taking photos of biodiversity to observing clouds and measuring light pollution, citizen and community science is a way for everyone to join in the adventures of science. March 27, 2024 • 2:00-3:00 PM CST

Webinar Registration Here

Citizen Science Fun with Kids

Image by almariel1 from Pixabay

Citizen science is a way to observe and collect data in the field and share it with scientists. In a recent ALSC blog post, Kelly Depin, writing on behalf of the ALSC School Age Services Committee explains how to involve youth in projects through library programming.

Kelly writes: "The Citizen Science (also known as Community Science) movement is bringing ordinary people of all ages in contact with ongoing scientific studies and letting them help by collecting or analyzing data, defining problems, etc. There are four features which help define a citizen scientist project: anyone can help; the same protocol is used by everyone; the data plus the scientist equals real conclusions; and the wide community of scientists and volunteers share the data in an open format. While it seems like a new concept, the Audubon Society has been managing the oldest and longest running project, ‘the Christmas Bird Count’, since 1900."

To learn more about how this could work at your library, stop here for the full blog post. [Wanted - Citizen Scientists. Depin, Kelly. ALSC blog. December 23, 2023]

Solar Eclipse Bonanza

 A message from Starnet via DPI's Jeni Schomber

SEAL Virtual Training: Preparing for Eclipse Day September 27, 2023 @ 11AM MT (10AM PT/12PM CT/1PM ET) You’ve got your SEAL eclipse viewing glasses, you have your programming ideas…but what happens the big day? Join STAR Net for this webinar to help you get ready for the day of the eclipse. We’ll be sharing insights from a survey of librarians who hosted programming for the last big American eclipse in 2017 and discussing how to prepare for the the things you can (and can’t) control on the day of the eclipse.

Register Today!   Acitivity of the Month:  Citizen Science: Eclipse Soundscapes This citizen science project is studying how eclipses affect life on Earth. Take part by collecting sound data from the October 14, 2023 annular eclipse and the April 9, 2024 total solar eclipse!   Click Here to View Activity Information Booklet Has Solutions for What to Do When the Glasses Run Out   Many library staff members are justifiably concerned about what to tell their patrons when their supply of eclipse glasses runs out. We want to remind you that in addition to the glasses, we are making available a nice 36-page information booklet, which is all about the upcoming two eclipses and a range of ways to view them safely (such as using a colander to show many shadow images of the eclipse on the sidewalk).  The booklet includes 2-page sheets about each eclipse, in English and in Spanish, that you can duplicate and provide to patrons with the glasses.  Click Below to find the on-line version of the booklet. While it is aimed at librarians, much of it can be read by the public, so feel free to distribute this URL to your patrons as well. Click Here to Learn More You can subscribe to these emails here: Sign up to receive our future emails.

Citizen Science Passive Program: Great Backyard Bird Count

If you're looking for a passive program or STEM activity, the Great Backyard Bird Count runs Feb.15-18, 2019. There are beautiful posters already created, you can print lists of the birds in your area code and the site also lists birding apps that can be used for identification purposes. This is a super citizen science activity for out of school learning, homeschoolers, and families to engage in together. Adults may love it, too.