The power of citizen science to contribute to both science and society is gaining increased recognition, particularly in physics and biology. Although there is a long history of public engagement in agriculture and food science, the term ‘citizen science’ has rarely been applied to these efforts. Similarly, in the emerging field of citizen science, most new citizen science projects do not focus on food or agriculture. Here, we convened thought leaders from a broad range of fields related to citizen science, agriculture, and food science to highlight key opportunities for bridging these overlapping yet disconnected communities/fields and identify ways to leverage their respective strengths. Specifically, we show that (i) citizen science projects are addressing many grand challenges facing our food systems, as outlined by the United States National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as broader Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations Development Programme, (ii) there exist emerging opportunities and unique challenges for citizen science in agriculture/food research, and (iii) the greatest opportunities for the development of citizen science projects in agriculture and food science will be gained by using the existing infrastructure and tools of Extension programmes and through the engagement of urban communities. Further, we argue there is no better time to foster greater collaboration between these fields given the trend of shrinking Extension programmes, the increasing need to apply innovative solutions to address rising demands on agricultural systems, and the exponential growth of the field of citizen science.
Although extensive research has shown the educational value of different types of interactive visualizations on students’ science learning in general, how such technologies can contribute to English learners’ (ELs) understanding of complex scientific concepts has not been sufficiently explored to date. This mixed‐methods study investigated how interactive dynamic and static visualizations embedded in web‐based inquiry instruction can support ELs and non‐ELs in developing a coherent understanding of energy and matter transformations in life science. A total of 331 seventh‐grade ELs and non‐ELs were randomly assigned to a dynamic or a static visualization condition. During inquiry instruction, students in the dynamic group explored interactive dynamic visualizations of energy and matter transformations; students in the static group explored static, yet otherwise equivalent, interactive visualizations. The results show that, while both forms of visualizations were beneficial for students, dynamic visualizations had significant advantages for improving all students’ understanding of the target concepts. Our analyses of video data revealed that ELs and non‐ELs in the dynamic condition engaged in more talk turns to interpret the scientific phenomena using both visual and textual representations, whereas ELs and non‐ELs in the static condition appeared to rely on textual information to obtain new ideas about the scientific phenomena from the visualization. Compared to the static group, students in the dynamic group also more successfully evaluated and consolidated a range of ideas to develop coherent scientific explanations using evidence from the visualization. This study provides evidence that interactive dynamic visualizations have promise for supporting science learning for all students, including ELs who are often underserved in mainstream science classrooms. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 10: 1274–1301, 2017
Carefully scaffolded dynamic visualizations have potential to promote science learning for all students, including English language learners (ELLs) who are often underserved in mainstream science classrooms, but little is known about how to design effective scaffolding to support such diverse students' learning with dynamic visualizations. This study investigated how two forms of scaffolding embedded in dynamic visualizations, expert guidance and generating guidance, can foster ELLs' and non-ELLs' understanding of unobservable scientific phenomena. While interacting with dynamic visualizations, students in the expert guidance condition were provided with scientifically accurate explanations to interpret visual representations, whereas students in the generating guidance condition were prompted to generate their own explanations using visual representations. The results show the significant advantage of generating guidance over expert guidance for both ELLs and non-ELLs, although students in the generating guidance condition did not receive feedback on their generated artifacts. Analyses of video data and log data from 40 pairs revealed that each form of scaffolding affected the quantity and quality of linguistically diverse students' conversations. The results show that generating guidance enabled students, particularly ELLs, to engage in discourse-rich practices to evaluate various sources of evidence from the visualization and compare the evidence to their alternative ideas to develop a coherent understanding of the target concepts. This study shows the unique benefits of generating guidance as an effective strategy to support linguistically diverse students' science learning with dynamic visualizations.
Energy and matter are fundamental, yet challenging concepts in middle school chemistry due to their abstract, unobservable nature. Although it is important for science teachers to elicit a range of students’ ideas to design and revise their instruction, capturing such varied ideas using traditional assessments consisting of multiple-choice items can be difficult. In particular, the linguistic complexity of these items may hinder English learners (ELs) who speak English as a second language from understanding and representing their ideas. This study explores how multi-modal assessments using different types of open-ended items can document ELs’ and English-dominant students’ (EDSs) understanding of energy and matter in chemistry. 38 eighth-grade, linguistically diverse students taught by one teacher at a low-income middle school completed an assessment designed to elicit their ideas about properties of matter and chemical reactions through arguing from evidence, writing explanations, and developing models of chemical phenomena. The results show that the three types of assessment items captured different correct and alternative ideas that ELs and EDSs held. In particular, modeling appears promising as a tool to assess what ELs know about properties of matter and chemical reactions in middle school chemistry, compared to other written items. The findings of this study provide insights into how different types of assessment items can be used to better understand the range of ideas held by linguistically diverse students.
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