How Can Citizen Science Participation Improve Science Learning?

Details How Can Citizen Science Participation Improve Science Learning? How Can Citizen Science Participation Improve Science Learning?

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21347013r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #470.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.422

Computer Science

Learning

Scientific paper

In the past few years, online projects such as Stardust@Home (http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/) and Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) have expanded the range of possible collaborations between professional astronomers and amateur scientists by opening collaboration up to a wide pool of Internet users. These online "citizen science" projects have been successful in recruiting many dedicated volunteers.
At the same time, research into science education (both formal and informal) has increasingly recognized the importance of authentic scientific inquiry in science learning. Citizen science offers volunteers an authentic experience of scientific inquiry.
Citizen science clearly offers a potential avenue for increasing public understanding of science - but at the moment, we know little about exactly how citizen science volunteers experience this process. In this poster, we lay out some educational research strategies to begin to understand exactly what benefit citizen science has for the volunteer citizen scientist. Once armed with this knowledge, we will be better able to design informal and formal education activities that effectively use citizen science activities to teach science content and process.
The first question is motivation - why do volunteers choose to participate in citizen science? In a companion poster, we outline results of a mixed methods study into the self-reported motivations of volunteers of the Galaxy Zoo website. The next step in understanding volunteers' motivations is to look at the motivations of the subgroup of volunteers that chooses to go deeper - to participate in the Galaxy Zoo forum, or to work on various specific research projects, for example.
Along with an understanding of motivations, we seek to understand volunteer learning. What are some possible trajectories of science learning that volunteers engage in as they participate in citizen science activities? We hope to understand some of these trajectories through interviews with volunteers and analysis of the postings on our forums.

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