Participatory science and education: bringing both views into focus

Abstract

Aligning the goals of scientists and participants becomes more challenging when citizen science moves into middle‐ and high‐school classrooms. Here, we describe a logic model developed in association with the Acadia Learning Project, a collaboration among scientists, teachers, and students that successfully meets both research and educational needs. The logic model is intended to assist other classroom‐based citizen‐science initiatives with project design and evaluation.

Cell Spotting: educational and motivational outcomes of cell biology citizen science project in the classroom

“…The opportunity to contribute to something important and relevant, to help and be part of something bigger, to have hands-on experiences with science by analysing real data and performing tasks usually reserved only to experts, and thus becoming a valuable part of a scientific project in a topic of interest were the most important motivational factors identified by the students which are in agreement with previously reported outcomes in other projects [Roy et al, 2012;Zoellick, Nelson and Schauffler, 2012;Edwards, 2014]. However, and although many argue that the participation in citizen science projects improves students' attitudes towards Science and understanding of scientific practice [Bonney et al, 2015], students' feedback revealed that the subject and the objectives of the research project were more important than the general aspect of helping research advancement per se.…”

“…Citizen science projects involve non-scientist citizens in scientific research projects by inviting them to collaborate in several different processes, steps, or activities of the scientific method, which may include choosing or defining questions for study, gathering information and resources, collecting and/or analysing data, interpreting data and drawing conclusions, disseminating conclusions, and discussing results and asking new questions [Bonney et al, 2009;Shirk et al, 2012]. Throughout the years, several reports have placed special attention on the understanding and assessment of the real impact of citizen science projects at the scientific, educational and motivational levels [Trumbull et al, 2000;Bonney et al, 2009;Kountoupes and Oberhauser, 2008;Marshall and Kleine, 2012;Zoellick, Nelson and Schauffler, 2012;Raddick et al, 2013;Science Communication Unit, 2013;Edwards, 2014, and references therein]. The evaluation and assessment of the educational impact of citizen science projects raises particular interest because although many of these projects are envisioned and implemented in scenarios of informal science education, many times the young students are one of the preferential target groups with their engagement being promoted through schools [Zoellick, Nelson and Schauffler, 2012].…”

“…Throughout the years, several reports have placed special attention on the understanding and assessment of the real impact of citizen science projects at the scientific, educational and motivational levels [Trumbull et al, 2000;Bonney et al, 2009;Kountoupes and Oberhauser, 2008;Marshall and Kleine, 2012;Zoellick, Nelson and Schauffler, 2012;Raddick et al, 2013;Science Communication Unit, 2013;Edwards, 2014, and references therein]. The evaluation and assessment of the educational impact of citizen science projects raises particular interest because although many of these projects are envisioned and implemented in scenarios of informal science education, many times the young students are one of the preferential target groups with their engagement being promoted through schools [Zoellick, Nelson and Schauffler, 2012]. For teachers and students, the establishment of a school-scientist partnership is usually very attractive as it offers them the opportunity to be involved with an on-going scientific project and to work with real data [Falloon, 2013].…”

Combining citizen science and public engagement: the Open AirLaboratories Programme

“…26 As part of formal (school) science education, citizen science has also been discussed as a way of enhancing student knowledge of the nature of science, as well as "democratizing science", 27 although there is an ongoing debate on whether CS is as workable for school science as for informal science education. 28,29 The contextual or dialogue turn in PUS which foregrounds public lay expertise as an important element in the dialogue which needs to take place between science, experts, and the public, is similarly seen to be supportive of the CS agenda. This mode of understanding CS is often tied up with the third aim in the list we outlined above, i.e.…”

Public Participation and Environmental Education

“…Both environmental education and scientific literacy are generated through the (mostly electronic) supply of educational background materials, easily understandable explanations of the underlying research questions, and clearly described working protocols. Some projects even aim at including formal science education with learning goals defined a priori by providing inquiry-based curricula for schools (Zoellick et al 2012). Although the educational impact of citizen science projects has yet to be assessed, studies show that the collaboration with scientists is highly motivating for the participants, enhances their scientific literacy, and often results in robust learning outcomes that can influence career choices (Zoellick et al 2012).…”