The Bicocca sampling days model: a participatory citizen science approach to environmental microbiome research and education.

ABSTRACT: Environmental microbiota are essential yet often overlooked, with urbanization driving microbial diversity loss and diseases of civilization. Public misconceptions, exacerbated by COVID-19, have widened the gap between microbiologists and society, highlighting the need for science-society integration. The Bicocca Sampling Days (BSDs) model offers a reproducible "citizen science" framework integrating research, education, and public engagement through large-scale microbiome sampling. Tested while assessing environmental microbiomes in different urbanized outdoors, 76 undergraduates participated in four sampling events, collecting 2429 samples in 8 h of effective sampling, achieving over than 303 samples/hour in 29 288.74 m². Manual metadata curation revealed only 0.

SUBMITTER: Ghisleni G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12704432 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature