Lost Ladybug Project: Summative Evaluation Report

The Lost Ladybug Project is a citizen science project which, since its inception in 2008, has received contributions of over 13,000 images of ladybug specimens from citizen scientists in North America. Audiences impacted included adult participants (without children), families, and youth (5-12 years old) participating within classrooms or out-of-school groups. Summative evaluation, conducted in 2011, was guided by the following questions: -To what extent has the program achieved its intended science learning impacts? -How are learning outcomes different for different types of participants? -How does participation over multiple years relate to outcomes, attitudes, and motivations? -What strategies might support or motivate sustained participation over multiple years? Overall, the Lost Ladybug Project showed achievement for each of its identified science learning impacts in knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Key findings included: -Use of project-provided resources was mixed, with participants selecting specific resources with which to engage and not using other resources provided and promoted by the project; this was true for adults, parents, and teachers. -Adult participants showed significant pre- to post- increases in knowledge scores about ladybug biology and species diversity. Data from project submissions show demonstration of skills in identification of species, with a 93% success rate among those who tried to identify their specimen (57% of all submissions). -For adults, the desires to contribute to scientific research and to conservation were two of the most powerful motivating factors. Adults also rated high levels of confidence about the usefulness of their contribution and its importance to scientists. A relationship was found between multi-year participation and higher scores in measures of knowledge outcomes and attitudes about the value of their contribution to science -Adults demonstrated positive interest in participating in future citizen science projects. They also showed positive attitudes about citizen science generally; however, these attitudes were very strong in pre-participation data, and thus did not seem to be impacted by participation in this project specifically. -Children of all ages (5-12 years old) showed strong knowledge of ladybug biology vocabulary and concepts after the program. Students demonstrated particularly strong conceptual knowledge in the area of ladybug biology. -Although children did not self-report learning skills, the adults who worked with them reported skill use among their children in both age groups. The skills most demonstrated related to data collection and understanding the purpose of the study. Skills around data analysis and drawing inferences were generally weakest overall, even among groups facilitated by a teacher. -Children's satisfaction with the program was high overall, with students most enjoying the tasks of data collection - searching for, finding, examining, and handling the ladybugs. Children showed a clear understanding of the purpose of their role in the science process and a strong feeling that their contribution would help scientists and, to a lesser extent, would help ladybugs. -There was relatively little impact on family groups' likelihood of participating in outdoor or science activities; those who are likely to participate in LLP already demonstrate high levels of engagement in these activities. Likelihood of citizen science participation was reported to be positively influenced by LLP participation by almost half of family respondents. The appendix of this document includes questionnaires used in the study.

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