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3 Overview of Citizen Science as a Context for Learning
Pages 53-70

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From page 53...
... In this chapter, we offer some preliminary insight into why citizen science is a useful place to pursue science learning. We do this by first explaining why citizen science provides a useful venue for supporting learning, and we then describe potential outcomes of science learning in the context of citizen science using a framework developed by an earlier National Research Council report (2009)
From page 54...
... As the committee considered the unique constellations of potentials, constraints, and challenges that citizen science offers for science learning, several distinct characteristics emerged as elements of citizen science that are especially fertile opportunities for learning. In particular, the committee considered the common traits and variations in citizen science projects and types of participation in citizen science identified in Chapter 2, with an eye toward how those similarities and differences are mobilized to support science learning.
From page 55...
... . There are three ways that the scientific context of a citizen science project can support science learning: 1.
From page 56...
... Project Infrastructure and Supporting Learning What makes a citizen science project possible is its infrastructure. When committee members reviewed citizen science projects for this report, 1  The committee notes that the term "voluntary," though intended to signify that participants elect to engage of their own volition, is necessarily contingent on an individual's or community's access to participate in a given project.
From page 57...
... Formal education settings provide an environment explicitly designed for learn ing, but educators in formal settings must consider a few specific issues prior to making use of citizen science. First, to the extent that engaging out of one's inde pendent interest is central to a person's citizen science experience, the degree of choice may be constrained in formal settings.
From page 58...
... Many settings for citizen science projects can be naturally characterized as informal or nonformal, and, as described below, the kinds of learning outcomes possible in citizen science projects align with one or more of the six strands of informal science learning. • Strand 1: Sparking Excitement and Interest.
From page 59...
... Learn ers come to generate, understand, remember, and use concepts, BOX 3-2 Strands of Informal Science Learning Learners who engage with science in informal environments .
From page 60...
... This strand includes learning traditional scientific methods, which in the context of citizen science may include well-estab lished research methods that are learned by participants, as well as cutting-edge research methods that are collectively developed through cooperative efforts of all groups, including professional scientists. As scientists learn to use the citizen science "method" for conducting their own research, they also learn how novel methods can improve data, analysis, the formulation of questions, etc.
From page 61...
... Within citizen science, learning outcomes from this strand may include learning specific skills associated with a project or activity, such as political or organizational skills in collective or community projects. For scientists, a few things that may be learned through practice include project leadership and management, communica tion skills, reporting and review of data, as well as project design and implementation.
From page 62...
... Each strand describes and organizes a whole range of outcomes of science learning, for a variety or learners, in a variety of contexts including cultural contexts. In light of the many opportunities for learning potentially supported through citizen science, the committee was able to use the strands to better consider how participation in citizen science can maximize specific learning outcomes.
From page 63...
... Given the nature of citizen science projects and activities, however, the committee also observed that "the learner" in citizen science may, in fact, be broader than individual participants. In 2016, the National Academies' report on science literacy demonstrated a different perspective on learning by highlighting an emerging idea in the literature on learning in science: community science literacy (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016)
From page 64...
... bring into their participation in citizen science by treating these backgrounds as assets that support learning. In the past decade, research that devotes scholarly attention to the learning processes of nondominant communities and learners has illuminated the tendency for educational interventions to assume that people, and especially people from historically underrepresented communities in science, have minimal relevant prior knowledge (Bang et al., 2012)
From page 65...
... . For example, in community-led environmental citi zen science (such as groups addressing local water quality or impacts of hydraulic fracturing)
From page 66...
... We return to this idea in Chapter 5, where we attempt to highlight examples of how this asset-based approach is supporting specific learning outcomes in citizen science, as well as in Chapter 6, where we discuss how to design for learning in citizen science. SUMMARY In summary, this chapter seeks to set the stage for our in-depth conversations about science learning in citizen science.
From page 67...
... . From distributed cognition to collective intelligence: Supporting cognitive search to facilitate online massive collaboration.
From page 68...
... Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, 2, 699-715. Monarch Larva Monitoring Project.
From page 69...
... . The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 1932 to 1972: Implica tions for HIV education and AIDS risk education programs in the black community.  American Journal of Public Health, 81(11)


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