A user playing Stall Catchers on a tablet.

About Stall Catchers

A stall is when there is a blockage to blood flowing. Stalls reduce blood flow, and reduced blood flow in the brain has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. By tagging the occurrence of stalls in videos of blood flow through mice brains, scientists are making real progress towards finding effective treatments in clearing stalls and restoring memory function.

In this project, the citizen watches a focused area of video as it plays through layers of vessels in the brain. Does the blood flow continuously, or is there a blockage on the way? The citizen simply tags flowing or stalled. There is a very easy to understand tutorial and a substantial amount of support by way of information, videos and graphics. This project could be used in upper primary school to teach within a real science context, or it could be extended to be used in senior biology.

This OCS project page has been written from a circulation and blood point of view but could equally well be approached with a brain function and health focus if that were appropriate.

An interesting strength of this project is how open they are about discussing concerns over the accuracy of citizen science contributions and acknowledging how much citizens have given to their research. From a teaching perspective, this offers great opportunities for teachers to develop students’ understanding about the Nature of Science substrand ‘Understanding science supported by the science capability ‘Gather and interpret data’. How do we know we can believe the accuracy of these entries? What is reliable data? There are several video clips and graphics on the site that discuss this here.

The site has useful accessible explanations of the science involved in this research. Also, in the How To, For Educators tab there are a variety of short videos introducing the project, explaining the science behind their research, an interview with the lead scientist and some downloadable infographics.

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