High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

Abstract

Residents in rural Kentucky (KY) and suburban Ohio (OH) expressed concerns about radon exposure and lung cancer. Although 85% of lung cancer cases are caused by tobacco smoke, radon exposure accounts for 10–15% of lung cancer cases. Academic and community members from the University of KY and the University of Cincinnati developed and pilot-tested a family-centered, youth-engaged home radon testing toolkit. The radon toolkit included radon information, and how to test, interpret, and report back findings. We educated youth as citizen scientists and their teachers in human subjects protection and home radon testing using the toolkit in the classroom. Youth citizen scientists explained the study to their parents and obtained informed consent. One hundred students were trained in human subjects protection, 27 had parental permission to be citizen scientists, and 18 homeowners completed surveys. Radon values ranged from < 14.8 Bq/m3 to 277.5 Bq/m3. Youth were interested and engaged in citizen science and this family-centered, school-based project provided a unique opportunity to further the healthy housing and quality education components of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Further research is needed to test the impact of student-led, family-centered citizen science projects in environmental health as part of school curricula.

Citizen Science Studies in Nursing: A Systematic Review

“…The included studies were published between the years 2017 and 2023. They have been conducted in the United States of America [ 38 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], Australia [ 39 , 45 , 46 ], France [ 40 ], and South Africa [ 42 ]. The qualitative methodology of data collection included different techniques, such as Photovoice [ 38 , 47 ], audio recordings [ 39 , 42 , 46 ], discussions [ 50 ], or questionnaires [ 44 , 49 ].…”

“…Nursing research with a citizen science (CS) focus was grouped into five areas: environmental health [ 38 , 43 , 44 , 47 ], environmental improvements [ 39 , 42 , 45 ], food safety [ 41 , 46 , 50 ], chronic diseases [ 40 ], and COVID-19 [ 48 , 49 ]. However, within these categories, there are diverse lines of inquiry.…”

Authentic Youth Engagement in Environmental Health Research and Advocacy

“…Another organizational challenge to engaging youth relates to logistics, such as difficulty obtaining access to the school building or changing student classroom schedules. In addition, some projects have eligibility requirements, such as the CS Program in which the parent had to own their home to take part in a home radon testing study [ 20 ]. In most cases, neither the teacher nor the student knew whether the home was owned or rented.…”

“…Students gained knowledge and skills to conduct research through participating in training on instrumentation use, data collection, report back, and ethical research practices. Students created a video and presented posters at local and regional public health and research conferences [ 20 ].…”

Maggot Menageries: High School Student Contributions to Medicinal Maggot Production in Compromised Healthcare Settings

“…In contrast, it is all too often the case that when students are given the opportunity to become citizen scientists, the motivation to do so is skewed toward education, the promotion of science, the raising of awareness regarding certain issues, and the learning of skills (Ruiz-Mallén et al 2016;Aivelo and Huovelin 2020;Hahn et al 2020;Harlin et al 2018). Research outputs are often of secondary importance, even though young citizen scientists can do much more.…”