Bring Citizen Science into the Classroom

Many times in high school classrooms, students feel that their hard work on long in-depth research projects can sometimes go unnoticed. Yes, their teacher reviews the project after the due date but once that project is graded. Then what?  Most projects are forgotten about. Students can see that. Spending weeks working on an in-depth project only for it to be forgotten about as the unit ends. The majority of the time, students are doing really cool projects in the classroom but what is that connection? How can students see the value in their projects long after the due date? By connecting their projects and course curriculum to Citizen Science Projects.

What is Citizen Science? 

Citizen Science is where any person with any background can participate in real-world research projects through observations, collecting data, communication, and/or collaboration. There are a large number of research projects around the world that are looking for dedicated individuals who share their interests. People typically get involved through a passion or hobby. Take bird watching for an example. There are thousands of bird watchers around the world who all share a common interest. There are a number of citizen science projects that connect people's interests and hobbies to research. Once individuals get involved, they begin to create a community of other researchers who also share the same common interests. Then professional networks begin. This is where data is collected, collaboration happens, and new discoveries are made. If you ask me, that sounds like a classroom and the way education should be!

Image From: California Academy of Sciences

Why Bring Citizen Science into the Classroom?

Bringing citizen science into the classroom can give students the "why" of a specific project that they are working on and also show the meaning for the entire class. These projects can give a purpose behind the content and if students have an interest within the project, they might continue on after the unit is over.

Image From: National Geographic Citizen Science Resource Library

There are so many different ways to go about introducing these projects to your students. But I think there are a few key things to think about when going through this process.

Background Knowledge 

Make sure your students have previous content knowledge. If not, teach it! If you are going to participate in a bird-watching project, being able to correctly identify different bird species is essential. If the students have that background knowledge, then they can better participate in the research project and provide more accurate data. Any plant or animal species identification can be challenging but providing your students with resources such as dichotomous keys or field guides to help with identification is crucial. There are also Books, Websites, and Apps out there that can help with species identification.

Project Ownership 

As soon as students begin participating in research projects, it's important for the teacher to always refer back to the scientific method. Not only can you then connect these projects into learning standards but you can connect them with specific content areas. Once students start conducting experiments or collecting data, they will start asking questions and want to know more. Those questions might not be able to be answered through the research project. But that's when you as the teacher can promote and coach students into taking ownership of their learning and pursue other aspects of the topic. Giving students this opportunity to control their own learning will make the project more meaningful. For Ag Teachers, these questions and additional projects can then turn into tremendous SAE projects!

Connecting with Professionals 

Professional researchers, scientists, biologists, all do incredible projects. Sometimes, they are even helping sponsor some of these citizen science projects. Connecting with these researchers in your local community can make a huge impact within a classroom. In Last Chance Endeavors - Conservation Connection's Podcast, they discuss the importance of bringing scientists and researchers into the classroom. They talk about looking at the research that is being done within the local community and structures their curriculum around that. This can show students the value of participating in the project and also provide ownership to the project since this is happening within their community. The episode does a great job explaining how some schools in Alaska implement this. This also begins to open doors up for students who might even be interested in pursuing research positions for a career. The podcast also brings up a great point that this is a great opportunity for the researchers to give back and educate on their findings. Great research articles are being published to the public almost every day but the common trend is the vocabulary challenges. These publications can use strong vocabulary and can be hard to read for the average person and make hard to follow. Connecting these researchers to the classroom is important. Letting them be the guest teacher, explaining their research, showing the results, and explaining to the students what they can do to help or interact in the projects can make the students want to participate even more. This can bring a whole new dimension for learning to the classroom and have students engage in meaningful work. Check out the Podcast by Last Chance Endeavors - Conservation Connection Here.

Image From: National Geographic Citizen Science Resource Library

Example Projects 

Here are a few quick Citizen Science Projects related to ecology that need you or you classrooms help!

iNaturalist This is an app where you can record everything you see in nature. This information gets documented and is published to help with looking at biodiversity on a global scale. BioBlitz is also cool events that give people certain times to go out and discover as many creatures in nature as they can and record it through iNaturalist.

eBird This is an app and website where you can document all the birds that you see on your birding adventures! This information helps to look at migration, species presence, and so much more. This project is a part of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.

NestWatch This is a continent-wide project where anyone can monitor bird nests. Identify the species and monitor the change over time. This project is through the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Appalachian Mountain Club This is encouraged for anyone that loves to hike and take landscape pictures from the top of a mountain. The pictures must be taken within the Maine - Virginia part of the Appalachian Mountains. These pictures are then analyzed to look at air pollution levels within certain areas.

FrogWatch Once a week, for a 20-minutes, record all of the toads and frogs that you can see and hear. This data helps go into amphibian research and looking at population pockets of different species around the nation.

North American Butterfly Association - Butterfly Counts: Participate in a continent effort on a single day butterfly count. Observe and count all the different species you can observe within your area.

National Phenology Network and Project BudBurst Learn about plant species in your area and how to identify them. Record when and where you find the plant species and the life cycle that the plant is on. The purpose of these projects is to look at climate change impacts in regards to plant development.

Additional Resources 

These are some great examples of ecological projects that you can participate in but there are so many other citizen science projects out there that aren't even related to ecology!

For more information on local and global Citizen Science Research Projects, check out SciStarter or CitizenScience.gov Both resources have hundreds of different citizen science projects that you or students can participate in!