NCM Kicks off Summertime Citizen Science Project

Ready, Set, Glow! Encourages Children to Become Stewards of their Environment through Firefly Observation and Online Reporting

Firefly-Focused Website Features New Games and Activities, as well as Suggestions for Ways Kids Can Become More Involved with their Natural Surroundings

The National Children’s Museum (NCM) today announces the 2010 launch of Ready, Set, Glow!, designed to help children become “citizen scientists” by studying fireflies in their own backyards and inputting the data online. Through a kid-friendly website – www.ReadySetGlow.org – children can play a new matching game to help “Flicker the Firefly” find his mate, learn the basics of firefly behavior, as well as play word-search games, laugh at firefly-themed jokes, and print coloring sheets, word games, and other fun, educational activities to enhance the experience.

This is the second year of the multi-year project, a collaboration between NCM and the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS), designed to engage kids in fun, inquiry-based learning.

“In a year when many families are cutting back their summer vacation and kids’ camp budgets, creating free fun in one’s own backyard has become a priority,” said Linda Coulombe, Manager of Science Programs at the National Children’s Museum. “Ready, Set, Glow! provides an interactive opportunity for kids to explore their curiosity, and supply real data to researchers studying the insects, empowering children to make a difference.”

On www.ReadySetGlow.org, families meet the animated “Flicker the Firefly,” who leads them through the site’s features. Parents can learn tips for engaging kids in science, and children can download activity sheets, play a firefly matching game, read firefly jokes, and learn how to be a scientist by conducting the citizen scientist project. Then, families can visit the MOS Firefly Watch project website at www.mos.org/fireflywatch to register their “habitat,” learn more about the science behind the project, and upload their gathered firefly data.

NCM and MOS will feed the firefly-tracking data to partner-researchers from Tufts University and Fitchburg State College as part of a larger, multi-year entomological research project led by the institutions. Through Ready, Set, Glow!, the organizations hope to engage families and learn more about the geographic distribution of fireflies and their activity during the summer season.

“Parents are always looking for ways to help their kids learn and thrive in their natural surroundings, and being able to help connect kids to nature is important to our environment,” said Kathy Dwyer Southern, President & CEO of the National Children’s Museum. “We are committed to programs like these that demonstrate the Museum’s dedication to the environment and makes learning fun.”

Ready, Set, Glow! is one of a series of “kid citizen science” projects that NCM has conducted at its Launch Zone over the past year.  Others include the Lost LadyBug Project and Project FeederWatch, both led through a collaboration with Cornell University.  NCM also conducted a Monarch Watch program to commemorate Earth Day.