For Science and Self: Youth Interactions with Data in Community and Citizen Science

Teaching an experiential field course via online participatory science projects: A COVID‐19 case study of a UC California Naturalist course

“…The unusually high 2020 postcourse values, and the unusually high gain in self‐confidence from precourse to postcourse, may also be related to the higher emphasis on interacting with other user data in participatory science projects. As mentioned previously, interacting with the broader dataset in which their observations are nested has been shown to have a positive impact on students’ perception of themselves as agents of environmental change (Harris et al, 2020). Additionally, the 2020 values may have been disproportionately impacted by the low response rate to the CalNat survey and not reflective of the 2020 cohort as a whole.…”

“…Additionally, the option of summarizing or analyzing other user's data could be used as an option for students uncomfortable with the required online presence of participatory science projects. Indeed, research has shown that engaging with the broader dataset in which their individual observations are ‘nested’ has a positive impact on student valuation of participating in such projects and on students’ perception of themselves as agents of environmental change (Harris et al, 2020).…”

Sediments and Seashores - A Case Study of Local Citizen Science Contributing to Student Learning and Environmental Citizenship

“…Again, most studies focus on content knowledge that is project specific, with most showing improvement (Zárybnická et al, 2017), although not all (Vitone et al, 2016). One recent study (Lewis and Carson, 2021) showed improvement in science skills, using a retrospective pre and post-test, and other studies showed the value of a CS project for building capacity for environmental agency and conservation action (Bela et al, 2016;Ballard et al, 2017a;Harris et al, 2020). More positive attitudes towards science (Vitone et al, 2016;Doyle et al, 2019) and increased engagement with nature (Schuttler et al, 2019) are also observed, although not specifically measured.…”

Studying phenological phenomena in subarctic biomes with international school pupils as citizen scientists

“…For example, involving former pupils, now adults, could extent the program beyond a school context. Involvement of current and former pupils would help to transition the project into a community science project that is carried out by different societal groups to facilitate local and regional monitoring projects and has the potential of more active participation in form of co-developing local research questions, collecting and analyzing data as well as dissemination of results (Harris et al, 2020;Shirk et al, 2012). Indigenous knowledge can also serve as legacy data and baseline data to extend the existing data set and knowledge network.…”

“…Although all citizen science projects contribute to scientific research to some extent, main goals may differ and are dependent on the target group of participants (Figure 1). School-based citizen science projects offer the opportunity to engage pupils in ecological research and contribute to both their scientific and environmental education (DITOs Consortium, 2019;Harris et al, 2020;Ruiz-Mallén et al, 2016;Wals et al, 2014). Wals et al, (2014) proposed citizen science as a tool to combine scientific education, usually focussed on learning outcomes connected to knowledge and practical skill development, with environmental education, which considers values, attitudes, and changing behaviors, to create a holistic learning experience.…”