For Citizen Scientists 🌍🌱¶
You don't need a classroom or a lab to do real science. With a windowsill, some seeds, and a phone, you can grow plants, measure them properly, and add your data to a worldwide astrobotany project. Everything here is free and public domain (CC0) — your observations become part of a shared, reusable dataset that helps everyone understand how plants grow, on Earth and beyond.
The idea in one line
Grow → measure with your phone → contribute your data → see how it joins a global picture.
Your pathway¶
| Step | What you do | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Grow anywhere | Sprout a tray of microgreens on a windowsill — cheap, fast, low-risk. | Stage III: Growing Microgreens |
| 2. Measure with your phone | Photograph with an AstroCalibration sticker and measure leaf/green area. | Stage I: Scientific Photography · Green Area Index |
| 3. Contribute your data | Submit through the open Epicollect5 projects and the microgreen survey. | Stage II: Favorite Microgreen |
| 4. See the global picture | Your numbers join others' — open, comparable, reusable (FAIR). | Why this is FAIR |
| 5. Go further | Try a root gravity experiment, build a DIY clinostat, or join the research pathway. | The researcher pathway |
What you'll need¶
- Seeds — any microgreen (radish, pea, mizuna, broccoli… start easy).
- A tray + water — a windowsill spot with light.
- A smartphone camera.
- An AstroCalibration sticker — a known size + colour in each photo so free software can measure your plants. (You can start with a plain ruler.)
Contribute your data¶
These open projects accept data from anyone — no account needed to start:
- 🌱 Your Favourite Microgreen survey — vote and tell us why.
- 📊 AIR MicroGreen Easy Leaf Area — log leaf-area measurements over time.
- 🌍 Urban Microgreens — add your grow to the global map.
Why your data matters
One windowsill tray is an anecdote; thousands, shared openly, are a dataset. Because AIR data is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and public domain, students and researchers around the world can learn from what you grow. Keep a simple "science journal" (a note or spreadsheet with dates, amounts, and photos) so your contribution is reproducible.
Ready to grow beyond Earth?¶
Curious how these same skills scale up to spaceflight research? Follow the researcher pathway toward simulated-microgravity experiments, or explore the Program Overview to see the whole AIR journey.