Benefits and challenges of incorporating citizen science into university education

Abstract

A common feature of many citizen science projects is the collection of data by unpaid contributors with the expectation that the data will be used in research. Here we report a teaching strategy that combined citizen science with inquiry-based learning to offer first year university students an authentic research experience. A six-year partnership with the Australian phenology citizen science program ClimateWatch has enabled biology students from the University of Western Australia to contribute phenological data on plants and animals, and to conduct the first research on unvalidated species datasets contributed by public and university participants. Students wrote scientific articles on their findings, peer-reviewed each other’s work and the best articles were published online in a student journal. Surveys of more than 1500 students showed that their environmental engagement increased significantly after participating in data collection and data analysis. However, only 31% of students agreed with the statement that “data collected by citizen scientists are reliable” at the end of the project, whereas the rate of agreement was initially 79%. This change in perception was likely due to students discovering erroneous records when they mapped data points and analysed submitted photographs. A positive consequence was that students subsequently reported being more careful to avoid errors in their own data collection, and making greater efforts to contribute records that were useful for future scientific research. Evaluation of our project has shown that by embedding a research process within citizen science participation, university students are given cause to improve their contributions to environmental datasets. If true for citizen scientists in general, enabling participants as well as scientists to analyse data could enhance data quality, and so address a key constraint of broad-scale citizen science programs.

Combining formal education and citizen science: A case study on students’ perceptions of learning and interest in an urban rat project

“…Notwithstanding the limitations in our study, we had similar results to many previous studies (Jordan et al 2011; Mitchell et al 2017; Silva et al 2016; Bonney et al 2016; Phillips et al 2018). They suggest that citizen science projects can be a valuable tool in the palette of environmental education.…”

“…While students mainly participated in the collection of data, as our project was contributory, this still led to potential substantial learning, although it has been suggested that learning outcomes are improved if participants are able to participate in many different aspects of a project (Zoellick, Nelson, and Schauffler 2012). As in previous research, students reported factual knowledge on study species and their near environment (Jordan et al 2011; Mitchell et al 2017; Silva et al 2016) and procedural knowledge on used research protocols (Bonney, Cooper, et al 2009; Bonney et al 2016). In comparison, conceptual knowledge was not as well represented in students’ responses; for example, in a number of interviews students did not know what “urban ecosystem” meant.…”

“…Because citizen science as an institutional practice is a novel phenomenon, the learning objectives of citizen science projects are usually not well formulated (Phillips et al 2018). Most often, observed learning outcomes are on the level of factual knowledge on the study species, environment, or phenomena (Jordan et al 2011; Silva et al 2016; N. Mitchell et al 2017).…”

Geo-locate project: a novel approach to resolving meteorological station location issues with the assistance of undergraduate students

“…In addition, new sources of data are being acquired all the time which means that the potential issues with resolving station locations may be an ongoing challenge. For example, we are working closely with the C3S Data Rescue Service to ensure that all rescued climate data is deposited via the new data discovery and depo-sition web-based service which we are developing (Noone et al, 2019). Work is also ongoing in collaboration with the European Environmental Agency (EEA) in its capacity as the Copernicus in situ lead, and with ECMWF in its capacity as the entrusted entity for C3S.…”

From twig to tree: Simple methods for teachers and students to track deer impacts

“…Benefits accrue to classrooms that use citizen science approaches to teach science (Kountoupes and Oberhauser, 2012;McDonald, 2014). These benefits include increased engagement in local environmental issues, awareness of the potential for faulty data, and becoming more careful in collecting data (Mitchell et al, 2017).…”