Citizen Science

“Citizen Science” usually refers to science that is conducted with the active participation of non-scientists.  For example a citizen science microbiology project might ask people around the country to sample their air filters and send them to a lab for microbial analysis.  The results of this analysis would be shared with the participants, thereby benefiting both science as well as public outreach/education.  Citizen science shouldn’t be confused with “crowdsourcing” (e.g. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk).   Another related, but distinct activity is DIY Biology in which non-scientists directly conduct scientific research.