The article discusses the public participation in scientific research, or citizen science, which involves the use of crowdsourcing to gather data for scientific research. The author looks at the use of citizen science in the field of ornithology, evidenced by Cornell University's Ornithology Lab. Topics include massive online citizen science projects such as SETILive's Allen Telescope Array, which searched for extraterrestrial life, the use of citizen science in STEM academic disciplines, as well as Yale University's partnership with the computer platform Zooniverse to gather data for its
The article discusses initiatives by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to connect youth to the natural world through birding. It has developed educational resources, known as BirdSleuth which are used around the U.S. to support students in citizen-science participation, outdoor activities, and inquiry-based investigations. It talks about BirdSleuth's Investigating Evidence module, the "Classroom BirdScope" research journal, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird citizen-science project.
Operation Magpie was a citizen science project that involved the community in collecting data about magpies. This article describes one aspect of the project from an education perspective. The study began with a collaboration of teacher educators, environmental scientists and a local radio station. After an initial workshop with 75 teachers, three teacher educators met regularly with 13 primary teachers who each volunteered to plan and teach a unit of work on birds. Meeting regularly in focus groups, the teachers shared their pedagogical strategies that supported students to connect with their
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Yvonne ZeegersKathryn PaigeDavid LloydPhilip Roetman
The article offers information on a citizen science project titled "Pathways to BioTrails" being conducted at Acadia National Park in Maine in which DNA barcoding will be used to monitor and identify plant and animal species. The project's goal of educating visitors to the park and acting as a model for future collaborations between national parks and research institutions is also touched on.
The article discusses citizen science projects focused on entomology, and examines their usefulness for engaging students in science education and providing meaningful hands-on educational experiences. Advice for incorporating citizen science into lessons and curricula are offered, and the applicability of entomology to science education standards is touched on.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Renee ClarJames WandersheeJohn GuytonMichael Williams
There is a vast terrain of emerging research that explores recent innovations in digital games, particularly as they relate to questions of teaching and learning science. One such game, Citizen Science, was developed to teach players about the practice of citizen science as well as lake ecology. Citizen science is a pedagogy that has a long history within the scientific community, engaging the public in ongoing community and environmental surveys to collect data for existing small-scale studies. More recently, citizen science has gained traction as an educational context for teaching and
Encouraging nonprofessionals to participate in ecological research through citizen science programs is a recent innovation and an effective strategy for gathering ecological information across broad geographical areas. In this paper, we demonstrate how reporting field-based observations through eBird, a citizen-based birding and data-recording program, can be used as a lab activity in an undergraduate ecology class. This exercise exposes students to worldwide data collecting networks in which non-scientific communities serve as major stakeholders. This lab activity also introduces basic field
The article presents advice by the authors for helping middle school science teachers in the U.S. to plan field trips related to science education. The authors say that the teachers should try to make the field trips a significant learning experience. They should communicate the goals of the trips to the students. According to them, many science museums offer pretrip planning meetings to allow teachers to know the resources available for students. They also offer excellent web sites for planning the trips.
The article discusses how a visit to a science museum illustrates the concept of informal learning in science education. The author describes a visit to a museum with science educator Jim Kisiel, who comments on how the behavior of museum guests is used to design exhibits. Kisiel discusses the importance of visually interesting displays and the role of signage in educating museum guests. The author suggests that similar concepts apply to science education in the classroom.
Collaboration efforts between educator preparation programs and children's science museums are important in assisting elementary pre-service teachers connect the theory they have learned in their classrooms with the actual practice of teaching. Elementary pre-service teachers must not only learn the science content, but how to effectively deliver that science content to a group of students. One university provided their elementary pre-service teachers with the opportunity to prepare and deliver science lessons to students in a children's science museum in south Texas.
It seems uncontroversial to claim that museums are unique places of interest with the potential to inspire learners, yet what this means and how it is managed are complex questions. Museum educators’ work is currently shaped by accountability requirements typically expressed as visitor targets. Centralised teaching and learning initiatives are presented as ‘good practice’. In opposition to these factors, the action research inquiry discussed here set out to enable the participants to research and reflect upon the challenges of their individual contexts, and to develop ideas for practice that
This study explored the nature of the relationship between a fifth-grade teacher and an informal science educator as they planned and implemented a life science unit in the classroom, and sought to define this relationship in order to gain insight into the roles of each educator. In addition, student learning as a result of instruction was assessed. Prior research has predominately examined relationships and roles of groups of teachers and informal educators in the museum setting (Tal et al. in Sci Educ 89:920–935, 2005 ; Tal and Steiner in Can J Sci Math Technol Educ 6:25–46, 2006 ; Tran 2007