Volunteer programs, part 4.5: Research

Thu, 09/17/2009 - 17:01 | Sarah Palmer

Welcome to Part 4.5 of Volunteering Global’s series on the many types of service programs and the groups that offer them!

Today’s topic: Research

What’s involved?
Careful observation, that’s what! These programs are interesting because there’s so much out there to research – some examples include:

Monitoring bird habits in the wild, including how many there are, when they migrate, what they eat, and how they interact with one another
Cataloguing and organizing artifacts in a museum collection
Tracking disease progress, including who it affects and where it goes
Checking growth and spread of invasive plant species
Calculating literacy rates and test scores among a certain age, gender, or ethnic demographic

Who can participate?
These projects are available to people of all ages, physical fitness levels, and educational and career backgrounds. If you’re interested in going out into the wild, there are groups working on research from the jungle to the tundra; if you’d like to be inside, there are museums worldwide with vast private collections of artifacts, art, and writings that are waiting to be researched. There are projects out there for those who have only a week to spare or for those who would like to take a career break for a year.

Where can I go?
American Bear Association - www.americanbear.org
ARCAS - www.arcasguatemala.com
Bimini Biological Field Station - wwww6.miami.edu/sharklab
Charles Darwin Foundation - www.darwinfoundation.org
Fauna Paraguay - www.faunaparaguay.com
Hellenic Ornithological Society - www.ornithologiki.gr
Long Way Home - www.longwayhomeinc.org
Passport in Time - www.passportintime.com
Reef Check - www.reefcheck.org
ReefDoctor - www.reefdoctor.org
Wyoming Dinosaur Center - www.wyodino.org
Yanapuma Foundation - www.yanapuma.org