Improved Insights Newsletter for April 2022: Citizen Science
Welcome to the April edition of the Improved Insights Newsletter: a newsletter for folks in informal STEM learning spaces who want to learn more about how to measure and communicate the impacts of their work.
I’m Sarah M. Dunifon - a long-time STEM educator, evaluator, and equity advocate. After spending time working in museums, nonprofits, and higher education, I now work on cutting-edge informal STEM learning research and evaluation with my team at Improved Insights. We specialize in informal STEM learning and youth programs.
This monthly newsletter includes tips, resources, and news on informal STEM learning evaluation. We hope you find it valuable! Now, let’s get started —
Big Questions in Citizen Science
April is citizen science month and as an informal STEM education evaluator, a former informal STEM educator, and a current STEM hobbyist, I'm all about getting regular people engaged with scientific knowledge.
Early in my career, I had the pleasure of working with the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, educating Chicagoans on urban wildlife and how they can be a part of collecting and making meaning of ecological data.
Since then, I've worked with a number of citizen science-aligned organizations as an evaluator and science communicator. I've also dabbled as a citizen scientist myself, contributing to projects like iNaturalist, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count.
In this month's newsletter, we'll talk about ways that researchers and evaluators are engaging with big questions in citizen science, explore terminology in the citizen science world (and why more inclusive terms are being proposed), and share resources to learn more about cool citizen science projects you can participate in. To read the full article, check it out in our Insights. In the meantime, here’s a taste:
Beyond the benefits of citizen science to the scientific community, research recognizes individual benefits of participating in citizen science, including increasing scientific knowledge and literacy, developing a better understanding of the process of science, and developing positive action on behalf of the environment (Phillips et al., 2018). Yet many citizen science initiatives do not have well-defined learning outcomes or systems of measurement in place.
There are so many exciting questions we can ask about citizen science. If you’re running a citizen science project, you may want to think about the specific outcomes of that project, not only for the scientific community but for the volunteers themselves. Questions you consider might include:
Why do citizen scientists choose to contribute their time to this project?
What do volunteers learn as a result of their participation in this project?
Does participating in this citizen science project grow volunteer interest in science?
Does participating change how volunteers see themselves? For example, do they see themselves more as scientists after participating? Does it increase their sense of identity, self-efficacy, or belonging in STEM?
Folks are also interested in learning more about how citizen science as a whole contributes to various impacts and outcomes on our community. Questions we might think about include:
How successful are citizen science efforts in democratizing STEM? Does citizen science offer folks usually excluded from scientific circles a chance to engage with STEM?
What is the overall impact of volunteer citizen scientists on the scientific community or on our collective scientific knowledge?
And researchers are learning some really interesting things. As Bruckermann et al. (2019) note, citizen science typically is not designed to put the learning of volunteers first. Rather, most citizen science projects are designed to collect, clean, or analyze large swatches of data. With this science-first approach, learning outcomes for volunteers are often left out of the conversation.
Bruckerman et al. (2019) also learned some key things about how educators can design citizen science projects to best connect with their audiences:
“Specifically, we found that the ways that facilitators framed the activities and positioned young people at CS events like BioBlitzes greatly influenced whether and how young people took on roles in CS practices.”
“Educators who are experienced to work with a particular age group in out-of-school settings are more likely to meet children’s needs (e.g. to make fun) than scientists or formal teachers.”
The educational framing of the citizen science experience is really important in imparting greater outcomes to youth. So, scientists and other STEM professionals should make concerted efforts to partner with educators (especially informal educators) in designing their projects.
60-Second Suggestions
Here are a few of my favorite things this month, usually pertaining to informal STEM education and evaluation, but occasionally some fun personal stuff, too.
AAM TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure report is out now. This annual forecasting report is always on the pulse of what is upcoming in the museums world by futurist and Founding Director of the Center of the Future of Museums, Elizabeth Merritt.
Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center is looking for two researchers for positions on inclusivity and social justice in STEM learning. Applications are due May 5, 2022. Pass this rare opportunity along to your colleagues!
This NPR Life Kit podcast episode about citizen - or community - science has lots of great examples of projects and ideas for how to motivate people to get involved.
Do you participate in any citizen science projects? Let us know!
Until next time - thanks!