Chris: we used the House Finch Eye Disease study as a good example of the benefits of citizen science data in our web seminar on September 26. Two things that are really great about using citizen science data are the ability to gather data over a long period of time and across a large geographic region.

We had a very interactive chat session going, and the teachers raised lots of great questions. A few that I remember were:

• What causes House Finch Eye Disease?
• How is it spread between birds?
• Can it be spread to other organisms?
• Is it related to other mycoplasmal diseases like walking pneumonia?
• What is the treatment or cure?
• Is it found on the west coast yet?
• What are the major disease threats on the west coast? West Nile Virus?

In the web seminar, we also discussed how teachers might address their questions. We mentioned they could conduct a study, analyze existing data, or synthesize reference materials.

Here’s a challenge for visitors to this blog:

Using Chris’ strategy, can you identify which questions on this list might be most suitable for conducting a study?