As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. Using community-based participatory research, human-centered design, and developmental evaluation approaches, this project will co-create a national community science project, which is a form of Public Participation in STEM Research (PPSR) or citizen science. The project seeks to increase inclusion and equity in STEM, while building capacity in research and science through leadership and participation by both historically underrepresented communities and established academic institutions. Participants will record their levels of perceived stress and well-being in relation to their local soundscape. This project will help to connect participants, specifically youth and their families from communities underrepresented and underserved in STEM, with science and nature through learning that is authentic and relevant to their lives. With support of a mobile app, community science project participants explore and map soundscapes to identify areas of "excessive noise" as well as "noise refuges." Community-led dissemination of results will inform adoption of community science projects by other community-based organizations. The project is a collaboration involving fifteen community leaders, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm in Atlanta, WorldBeat Center in San Diego, CLUES in St. Paul, MN, and Camp Compass in Allentown, PA. PPSR has exciting potential to engage broad audiences in STEM learning and research, particularly when projects are genuinely co-created by local communities, scientists, and educators. Using a community-based participatory research approach in the project fosters direct involvement from community members in integration of science practices and learning, from the development of the research questions, design of the study, to analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results. Human-centered design is important as it is an established collaborative approach for addressing real-world problems facing human communities. In this project, human-centered design will include technology in the problem-solving phases of inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Developmental evaluation will provide on-going direct feedback to the project team over the project lifespan with respect to equity and inclusion in PPSR, an informal STEM learning environment. The project will further knowledge and understanding of soundscapes and noise pollution, enable use of mobile apps to map soundscapes in urban environments, and contribute to the relationship of noise to well-being.The project will produce conceptual frameworks and practical resources (toolkits) to guide future community-based PPSR efforts. Results from this project will advance knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of PPSR practitioners regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion of underrepresented audiences in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen PurcellBobby WilsonMakeda CheatomJohn AnnoniTanya SchuhDavid BonterRick Bonney
Please join us in celebrating Citizen Science Day, which falls this year on Saturday, April 14th. This issue of Connected Science Learning is dedicated to highlighting effective citizen science programs that involve classroom students in collecting data for research scientists, while also engaging them in key STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) content and practices. Students get a “front row seat” to what scientists do and how scientists work, plus develop the reasoning skills and practices used by scientists.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), SciStarter 2.0 was launched to enhance, diversify, and validate participant engagement in scientific research in need of the public’s help. SciStarter’s leadership is part of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee, Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning, which is developing guidelines and a research agenda for citizen science in education. This article briefly introduces educators to SciStarter 2.0.
Northern ecosystems are rapidly changing; so too are the learning and information needs of Arctic and sub-Arctic communities who depend on these ecosystems for wild harvested foods. Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) presents a possible method to increase flow of scientific and local knowledge, enhance STEM-based problem solving skills, and co-create new knowledge about phenology at local and regional or larger scales. However, there remain some key challenges that the field of PPSR research must address to achieve this goal. The proposed research will make substantial contributions to two of these issues by: 1) advancing theory on the interactions between PPSR and resilience in social-ecological systems, and 2) advancing our understanding of strategies to increase the engagement of youth and adults historically underrepresented in STEM, including Alaska Native and indigenous youth and their families who play an essential role in the sustainability of environmental monitoring in the high latitudes and rural locations throughout the globe. In particular, our project results will assist practitioners in choosing and investing in design elements of PPSR projects to better navigate the trade-offs between large-scale scientific outcomes and local cultural relevance. The data collected across the citizen science network will also advance scientific knowledge on the effects of phenological changes on berry availability to people and other animals.
The Arctic Harvest research goals are to 1) critically examine the relationship between PPSR learning outcomes in informal science environments and attributes of social-ecological resilience and 2) assess the impact of two program design elements (level of support and interaction with mentors and scientists, and an innovative story-based delivery method) on the engagement of underserved audiences. In partnership with afterschool clubs in urban and rural Alaska, we will assess the impact of participation in Winterberry, a new PPSR project that investigates the effect of changes in the timing of the seasons on subsistence berry resources. We propose to investigate individual and community-level learning outcomes expected to influence the ability for communities to adapt to climate change impacts, including attributes of engagement, higher-order thinking skills, and their influence on the level of civic action and interest in berry resource stewardship by the youth groups. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we compare these outcomes with the same citizen science program delivered through two alternate methods: 1) a highly supported delivery method with increased in-person interaction with program mentors and scientists, and 2) an innovative method that weaves in storytelling based on elder experiences, youth observations, and citizen science data at all stages of the program learning cycle. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The project also has support from the Office of Polar Programs.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanElena SparrowChrista MulderDeb Jones
This resource showcases a conference poster that the Wildlife Conservation Society presented at the 2014 Visitor Studies Association Conference and the 2014 Inclusive Museum Conference, outlining the work we undertook to explore the development of a proposed new family exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, "Safari Adventure," paired with selected results and takeaways. In 2011, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded WCS a grant to support our investigation and development. We asked ourselves the questions: How can zoo exhibits better connect people to nature? By what methods can we explore
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. The Lost Ladybug Project (LLP) is a Cornell University citizen science project that connects science to education by using ladybugs to teach non-scientists concepts of biodiversity, invasive species, and conservation.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting. In this NSF International Research Experiences for Students project MSU students will travel to the Altai Republic and work with faculty and students at Gorno-Altaisk University to conduct research related to native language use in learning ecological sciences in informal settings.
This is a summary of results and evaluations of the first citizen science project awarded by the National Science Foundation to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1992 (before the term "citizen science" was used to define public participation in scientific research and before the Internet or even computers were in widespread use). The report lists several publications and evaluation reports, none of which are available electronically as of April, 2014. For more information about these reports and the data they contain please contact Rick Bonney (RickBonney@cornell.edu).
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Cornell Lab of OrnithologyRick Bonney
In Continuous Education curricula in Spain, the programs on sciences of the environment are aimed toward understandings of sustainability. Teaching practice rarely leaves the classroom for outdoor field studies. At the same time, teaching practice is generally focused on examples of how human activities are harmful for ecosystems. From a pedagogic point of view, it is less effective to teach environmental science with negative examples such as catastrophe, tragedy, and crisis. Rather, teaching environmental sciences and sustainable development might be focused on positive human-environment
This book chapter describes the early evolution of Project FeederWatch, Classroom FeederWatch (which later evolved into the Lab of Ornithology's BirdSleuth), and early work to conduct citizen science online with the advent of the World Wide Web. It cites and presents data from several evaluation reports produced for the Lab's first citizen science award from the National Science Foundation, called "Public Participation in Ornithology." Contact Rick Bonney (reb5@cornell.edu) for a PDF of this chapter.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Cornell Lab of OrnithologyRick Bonney
Garibay Group worked with CLO staff to conduct front‐end research with targeted Latino communities. The goal of this research was to gain an in‐depth understanding of partner communities, including both Latino families living in these communities and of organizational partners. Specifically, research focused on understanding Latino families’ cultural values and norms regarding leisure choices, attitudes toward science, use of technology, and responses to and interested in citizen science.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Cecilia GarabayCornell Lab of Ornithology
This report was completed by the Program Evaluation Research Group at Endicott College in October 2013. It describes the outcomes and impacts of a four-year, NSF-funded project called Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning (grant number 0840186). Go Botany focuses on fostering increased interest in and knowledge of botany among youth and adults in New England. This was being done through the creation of an online flora for the region, along with the development of related tools, including PlantShare, and a user-friendly interface for ‘smartphones’. In January 2012, the PI
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Judah LeblangNew England Wild Flower Society