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Project Descriptions

The YardMap Network: Social Networking for Community Science

September 1, 2009 - August 31, 2013 | Media and Technology, Public Programs
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Institute for Learning Innovation, and several environmental organizations are merging existing bird-focused citizen science programs with gardening and online social networking activities to provide older adult learners (age 35 and up) with opportunities to investigate the environmental impacts of implementing landscaping and carbon-reducing practices in their backyards, community gardens, and parks. The YardMap Network project is developing learning resources that will help gardeners, birders, and novices learn bird-habitat improving and carbon-reducing living practices by joining a nationwide ecological social network composed of more than 100,000 people. The goal of the project is to create online learning communities that move people from basic and intermediate levels ecological understanding to advanced levels of understanding by providing experiences whereby YardMappers learn about, design, evaluate, share, and invent conservation practices in their backyards and other green spaces. While developing the network, the project will gather data to test the hypothesis that coupling citizen science activities with social networking technologies to create online learning communities improves participants\' understanding of project-relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The project will track learning outcomes using standard evaluation techniques and by following individuals\' routes of entry, network interactions, mapped garden practices, carbon-neutral behaviors, and their bird monitoring activities. YardMappers will divide naturally into treatment groups, creating a quasi-experimental design to test the importance of social networking for basic, intermediate, and advanced learning outcomes.

Funders

NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 0917487
Funding Amount: 372582

TEAM MEMBERS

  • REVISE logo
    Principal Investigator
    Cornell University
  • Y. Connie Yuan
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Cornell University
  • Marianne Krasny
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Cornell University
  • REVISE logo
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Cornell University
  • Nancy Wells
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Cornell University
  • Discipline: Ecology, forestry, and agriculture | Education and learning science | Life science
    Audience: Adults | Museum/ISE Professionals | Evaluators
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Websites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media | Public Programs | Citizen Science Programs

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