No one has a better, more important job than Adventure Scientists. Imagine you wake up and instead of going to school or your office job in the same old cubicle with the same old responsibilities, you go to the beach. Except you’re not on vacation, though you pack sunscreen and swimwear. Instead, you bring a water sampling kit and collect water from the ocean. Then the next day, you and a few volunteers head to the woods to find a rare species of mushroom. The day after that, your group travels to the mountains to sample the air quality, then a lake to check out what’s going on with the marine life. Name a location and you’ve probably been there. Your life is an adventure, because your work is an adventure. That’s a snapshot of the life of an Adventure Scientist. Not a bad life, right?

What Adventure Scientists Do

ThatHelps’ partner Adventure Scientists is a non-profit organization that collects data in all kinds of climates for research partners to analyze. They work to find solutions for today’s most pressing environmental issues, like conservation and climate change. Adventure Scientists are real-life explorers: they provide hard-to-obtain environmental data that would otherwise be unavailable for conservation.

Watch how one Adventure Scientist collected water samples to help their Conservation team study microplastic pollution. (Microplastics are pretty bad for ocean life. They attract toxins and are eaten by fish and other aquatic life.)

You Too Can Be An Adventure Scientist

Their network of informed volunteers is growing! If you have a deep commitment to conservation and the scientific process, you too can become an Adventure Scientist. Volunteers must meet guidelines for projects, often collect data with their smartphones (how’s that for modern-day science?) and learn the protocol for procedures before the expeditions. Volunteers are specially chosen for each project, but share one thing in common: they must have a meticulous eye for detail. A knack for storytelling to share their experiences with fellow adventurers doesn’t hurt either.

Coupe things to know before you pursue the adventure life: it costs nothing to volunteer, but volunteers may have to pay for fees to ship their samples which can be reimbursed. Also, volunteers can sign up individually or in groups, but every person must sign up alone so they can be trained accordingly.

If you’re not able to take up the adventure science lifestyle, there are other ways to get involved. as Sign up for the organization’s newsletter, following their amazing pics on social media, or donate. Another reason we love what they’re all about? They take ideas for new projects. Got an idea? Submit it here.

In awe of these activist explorers? Download our app to stay up to date on what projects the Adventure Scientists are working on!

Photo: Pixabay, AdventureScientists.org, @adventurescientists