What’s the condition of your lake, river, or coastline? Support SPLASSH and find out.

Kennesaw State University
Atlanta, Georgia
EcologyEducation
DOI: 10.18258/2528
$2,126
Raised of $1,973 Goal
107%
Funded on 8/12/14
Successfully Funded
  • $2,126
    pledged
  • 107%
    funded
  • Funded
    on 8/12/14

About This Project

SPLASSH will capture and share the vast amounts of information about water that is collected by students, citizen scientists, and researchers so that we may understand the current conditions of our lakes, rivers, and coastlines. Clean water is crucial to a healthy environment and economy. Our mission is to inspire water conservation so that we may better protect our waterways for the future.

http://yourmarkontheworld.com/post/92542216679/new …...

Ask the Scientists

Join The Discussion

What is the context of this research?

Water is fundamental for all living things, and the condition of our waterways is crucial to public health and the health of every ecosystem on Earth. Water flows through every sector of our economy and infiltrates our society. Some of the biggest global challenges that we face involve the sustainable use of water, and observation is key for sustainability. The problem is that there are not enough observatories to monitor all bodies of water, and funding for these efforts is limited. However, there is a workforce yet untapped that collects vast amounts of information about our waterways: students, citizen scientists, and researchers. SPLASSH will capture and disseminate valuable information about our waterways from these individuals, and it might just change the water world.

What is the significance of this project?

SPLASSH will capture a diverse array of information about water that currently remains locked in students' lab reports, field notebooks, poster sessions, and laptops. Many students, citizen scientists and professionals are active water researchers who collect information on water quality, depth, flow, algae blooms, fish kills, biological surveys, catch data, etc. SPLASSH will be a platform that shares water information, thereby serving as an effective outreach tool to educate and engage the public about water. By sharing water projects, we will crowdsource the condition of our waterways and contribute very valuable information to the scientific community and decision makers. SPLASSH is a reactive and engaging, real-time social platform for anyone who has an interest in water.

What are the goals of the project?

All funds will support the development of a gamification feature for SPLASSH, which will engage and reward users as well as encourage visitors to return to SPLASSH.



Gamification has long been implemented in video games and can be seen in everyday use from how many likes one receives from a Facebook post to earning badges for beer connoisseurs.



If excess funds are raised, it will fund help fund the dissemination of SPLASSH, in order for students, citizen scientists, and researchers to learn about SPLASSH, it must be shared with the scientific community. SPLASSSH will be presented and promoted at the annual American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco this fall if we can raise the necessary funds.

Budget

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The raised funds from this campaign will fund the development of a gamification feature for SPLASSH (http://splasshdata.meteor.com) and aide in the dissemination of this highly engaging citizen science outreach tool, which will revolutionize the way we think about water.

In order to develop the gamification component, SPLASSH will hire a UI/UX Developer and Designer with $1,550 of the raised funds .

$276 will be allocated to database and mapping tools for SPLASSH.

Finally, a 5% fee ($92) for the requested total project budget of $1973 will be paid to Experiment.com for allowing us to use their site to raise funds and a 3% fee ($55) for the total project budget will cover the cost of a secure third party vendor to handle all transaction fees.

All donations are tax deductible and will be directed through the Kennesaw State University Foundation - under the SPLASSH account. Thank you for your support!

Meet the Team

Lisa G Adams
Lisa G Adams

Team Bio

A colleague once called me “Water Woman,” which is fitting because my earliest memories involve water. If there was a body of water nearby, I could be found with my hands and feet wet, exploring what was living beneath the surface. Instead of dolls, I played with minnows. My fascination with water probably explains why I love to swim in any body of water that doesn’t have great whites lurking under the waves or has poor water quality. My vacations involve beaches and one of my favorite places to explore is the intertidal zone on rocky shorelines. Although I don’t study them, I am fascinated by how some critters can withstand hours of exposure and love searching for sculpins, seastars, and the octopus that usually evades detection. As far as my research, of course it’s about water and the critters that live in or near it! As an educator and scientist, I want to address the untapped power of our students and citizen scientists and share their water projects with the rest of the world.

Press and Media


Additional Information

SPLASSH is Headquartered at Kennesaw State University, located just north of Atlanta.



Please check our interview by Devin Thorpe of Your Mark on the World (7/23/2014) @ http://yourmarkontheworld.com/post/92542216679/new …...



For more information about previous work, please see http://lisagadams.wordpress.com



A little tide pooling with some West Coast SPLASSHers
http://instagram.com/p/bEQvqjCE3t/




Project Backers

  • 25Backers
  • 107%Funded
  • $2,126Total Donations
  • $85.04Average Donation
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