Elizabeth Babcock is the Chief Public Engagement Officer and Roberts-Wilson Dean of Education at the California Academy of Sciences where she is responsible for creating and implementing public engagement, outreach, and education programs  We talk about how the academy integrates its programs into  schools and about the opportunities that citizen science offers to students to do authentic science research. In addition to a wide variety of resources for educators, the Academy also offers a citizen science toolkit  to help teachers, students, and the public get started.