Listening and empowering: children and science communication

Merzagora, Matteo; Jenkins, Tricia

doi:10.22323/2.12030301

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…A review of secondary data on the US SciStarter platform (Ciasullo, Manna, and Palumbo 2019), and a long-term neuroscience CS project in Catalonia, Spain, (Ruiz-Mallén et al 2016) showed that the real contribution of CS lies with the enhancement of the relationship between teachers and pupils, engaging them together in a co-creating partnership intended to address real scientific issues at school. Examples of CS projects involving primary school children testify to the importance of involving children in sustainable actions and behaviours at a young age, by stimulating pupils to work collaboratively with peers and their teachers to find positive and creative solutions to topics and problems that are relatable to them in their own communities (Merzagora and Jenkins 2013).…”

Section: Engaging Young People Is Key To Long-term Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-Polli:Nation: Contributing Towards Sustainable Development Goals Through School-Based Pollinator Citizen Science

Lakeman Fraser,

Colucci-Gray,

Robinson

et al. 2023

CSTP

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As the citizen science (CS) community flourishes, there is an opportunity to reflect on how practitioners can widen participation and work with participants as co-researchers to investigate and take action around global challenges. Through the lens of one CS case study, the X-Polli:Nation project, we report on how technologists, ecologists, and education specialists repurposed older projects by cross-pollinating ideas with children and teachers in the UK and in Italy to create Artificial Intelligence–enhanced tools appropriate for teaching sustainability in schools. Taking part in an actionable CS cycle, children learn about pollinating insects, record scientific data, create flowering habitats, and communicate their importance. Through this process, X-Polli:Nation demonstrates relevance across a number of Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., SDG 4, Quality Education; SDG 10, Reducing Inequality; and SDG 15, Life on Land), and applies the underlying SDG principle “leave no one behind.” We go on to investigate if, and how, young people would like to deepen their engagement with the SDGs, and we report that taking action and communicating the importance of the SDGs were of paramount interest. The challenge of building sustainability into an already crowded curriculum can be alleviated by understanding its value, considering the audience, and adapting to new contexts. The considerable benefits include raising awareness about global sustainability issues and giving children the confidence to become passionate environmental stewards, all the while extending the life of older projects and thus making CS methods sustainable too.

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Section: Engaging Young People Is Key To Long-term Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-Polli:Nation: Contributing Towards Sustainable Development Goals Through School-Based Pollinator Citizen Science

Lakeman Fraser,

Colucci-Gray,

Robinson

et al. 2023

CSTP

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“…Educadores e pesquisadores alertam para a necessidade de um ensino que contribua com a apropriação do conhecimento científico dos alunos a partir dos anos iniciais de escolaridade. Nesse viés, as disciplinas de Ciência, Tecnologia, Engenharia e Matemática, conhecidas em inglês como disciplinas STEM, têm recebido especial atenção (MERZAGORA;JENKINS, 2013;MCDONALD, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Experimentação como estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem para o favorecimento das capacidades de pensamento crítico

Militão¹,

Lopes²

2022

Educação

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O pensamento crítico tem sido objeto de interesse da pesquisa educacional, especialmente na área das ciências, com vistas à formação de cidadãos capazes de tomar decisões racionais e resolver problemas pessoais e sociais que envolvem a ciência e a tecnologia. Os aspectos próprios da estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem – experimentação – são considerados por pesquisadores como favoráveis ao desenvolvimento de capacidades de pensamento crítico. Estabeleceu-se como objetivo geral analisar a eficácia da experimentação, enquanto estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem no ensino de Ciências, para a manifestação das capacidades de pensamento crítico em alunos nas séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. A abordagem deste estudo é de natureza qualitativa do tipo investigação-ação. Ela foi realizada no segundo semestre de 2019, em uma escola particular, no estado de São Paulo. A intervenção foi realizada com 23 alunos de uma turma do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Os resultados demonstram que os alunos, ao participarem da estratégia proposta, manifestaram capacidades de pensamento do conjunto de capacidades elementares, da Taxonomia do pensamento crítico de Ennis. A maioria dos alunos (55,5%) consideraram o seu nível de interesse como muito bom. Além disso, 38,8% dos alunos indicaram terem encontrado pouca dificuldade ou nenhuma dificuldade na realização das atividades. Considera-se como plausível, tanto em relação ao nível de interesse quanto ao grau de dificuldade, o fato de a estratégia utilizada favorecer a exposição das ideias e possibilitar o seu compartilhamento, assim como a argumentação, formulação de hipóteses e manifestação de erros, permitindo a sua participação ativa no processo de aprendizagem.

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“…The involvement of non-expert people in supporting professional scientists in more or less complicated scientific endeavours has acquired an increasing relevance in the last few years (Merzagora and Jenkins, 2013), to the point that Silvertown (2009) reported the rise of “[…] a new dawn for citizen science” (p. 467). Generally speaking, citizen science could be defined as the involvement of lay people – i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a taxonomy of citizen science projects in primary school

Ciasullo

Manna

Palumbo

2019

TQM

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Purpose Educational institutions are facing a growing number of challenges, which impair their ability to provide high quality and effective educational services. The involvement of pupils in co-creating learning experiences is a fundamental ingredient of the recipe for increased educational quality. Inter alia, the implementation of citizen science initiatives at schools allows pupils to be active co-producers of educational services. The purpose of this paper to shed light on the attributes of citizen science projects targeted at pupils (aged between six and ten) attending primary schools, in order to identify their potential implications in terms of educational services’ quality improvement. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data were collected from the Scistarter® web platform. Projects addressed to primary schools and provided with specific classroom materials were taken into consideration (n=65). A qualitative, comparative and bird’s eye analysis was performed: first, looking at the role and the tasks assigned to pupils, the projects were grouped in four categories; second, the potential implications of citizen science on educational services’ quality were investigated. Findings Citizen science at school paves the way for pupils’ empowerment and for their direct involvement in the co-production of educational services. Moreover, it enhances the relationship between teachers and pupils, engaging them in a co-creating partnership intended at addressing real scientific issues at school. However, citizen science is still poorly integrated into conventional educational curricula in primary schools. Practical implications From a management point of view, citizen science is thought to contribute to the improvement of educational services’ quality, stimulating pupils to partner with their peers and with teachers for the purpose of knowledge co-production; in addition, it allows for the enrichment of educational activities in primary schools. From a policy perspective, citizen science at school harmonizes with the democratization of scientific knowledge. Originality/value This is one of the first research papers to demonstrate the potential implications of citizen science on educational services’ quality and effectiveness in primary schools.

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Listening and empowering: children and science communication

Cited by 7 publications

References 1 publication

X-Polli:Nation: Contributing Towards Sustainable Development Goals Through School-Based Pollinator Citizen Science

X-Polli:Nation: Contributing Towards Sustainable Development Goals Through School-Based Pollinator Citizen Science

Experimentação como estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem para o favorecimento das capacidades de pensamento crítico

Developing a taxonomy of citizen science projects in primary school

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