Welcome!  Our video gives a snapshot of where we are, 3 years into this exploratory project.  We look forward to your comments and questions about the Climate Lab, about scientist-school partnerships, about climate change education as it fits (or doesn't fit) into school curriculum — and more!

Hi Brian! Thanks for sharing your work. I'm fascinated by the idea of citizen science getting the public engaged in real research, although as you say in your video, there can be challenges to using the data collected by citizen scientists. Are there any types of research projects or types of data collection that you think are really well-suited to a citizen science approach?

Hi, Claire, thanks for your comment!

    This video showcase has several interesting examples of citizen-science projects — for example, check out Foldit  http://stemforall2017.videohall.com/presentatio....  Citizen scientists have served as monitors around nuclear power plants, have analyzed astronomical data (such as looking for asteroids or near-earth objects), done watershed studies, and more.  And in Europe for more than a century, some governments and others have collected seasonal plant and animal data (phenology) as part of their weather forecasting, agricultural services, etc. 

      The thing is, there are a lot of big questions whose answers require many more eyes/hands/minds on than can be supplied by professional scientists.  I like to say that while Big Science instruments like the Hubble Telescope, or CERN, are necessary for answering some questions, a regional ,national,  or international network of observers is the right tool for understanding things like local and regional impacts of climate change.  Even with the explosion of such programs (go to USANPN.org, for example) , we need more people on the ground — but we also need more people using the data.    It's actually pretty easy to generate more data than can be handled!  Also, issues like data quality are time-consuming and persistent. 

Schools bring some tools that can help, if the teachers and students take on the challenge of data quality and analysis as real learning opportunities, bringing to bear the pedagogy and standards of good science education.  The research program has be designed to make use of various kinds of data, so that citizen-collected data have authentic value, but are used to complement what the "pros" do -- for example, generating hypotheses (or possible ones) that can be worked with more formally by other members of the research team.    This also means interesting negotiations between the school world and the scientist world.  Many of these issues are familiar to both scientists and teachers around the world, but there's always more to learn in such partnerships, about how to connect/blend cultures...

Hi Brian. This looks like a fantastic project.

One question: are there any statistical tools that citizen scientists can use to find out how noisy their data are, or how much measurement error they are seeing?

Thanks, and best of luck.

Cyrus 

    I will ask one of my colleagues to weigh in -- the Manomet scientists have been the ones doing the data quality assessments.  While you wait for that answer, however, I will say that one of the areas we've been working on is in refining the protocols, and multiplying ways to offer access to participation, in order to achieve more reliability at the most basic level — for example, that complete data sets are generated, that measurements are recorded legibly (or accurately, where digital media are possible), and so forth.  Our measurements started out rather simple, I should add!   

    In my view, a key to this level of reliability has been to make sure that the teachers understand the research program they are participating in, and can interpret it to the kids — and that they have the support of administrators to do the field work!  Of course, with middle school, the mere experience of getting out into the field is so stimulating, and the sense of participating in something that reaches beyond the school walls is so interesting, that some benefits accrue from these activities — and the value of the data are a second-order consideration.  So this has taken more attention. 

 In fact, TERC"s work has been both as curriculum developers, and as "brokers" or interpreters between school culture and scientist culture.    

Brian,

Exciting project! The video communicated the main components and purposes of the program very well. Do you have any data about the youths’ and teachers’ meanings of this program? In other words, do they see science differently as a result of their participation? Themselves as science literate? How many schools are you working with? How are teachers involved? 

Wow! Your project is fascinating. Towards the end of your video you mentioned that you are trying to adapt the project to other learners. Can you tell us more about that? Thanks!

Well, it's something we're thinking through right now.  We have had some interest from high school teachers, and from informal ed institutions (such as nature centers), possibly for adult visitors as well as young people.   As you can see from our (prototype)  "project selector"  (URL below) specific data sets could easily be identified which could be collected by such participants over time, and contributed to the overall, growing data set.   So this is something we're examining for the future.  Thanks for the question!

https://external-wiki.terc.edu/display/BAC/Project+Selector

Hi Brian and Trevor, thank you for sharing your project! I'd love to hear more about the role of the scientist(s) in the project. What is their role and time commitment? 

Thanks for a great overview video. I'm wondering if you have plans for sustainability of the program, beyond the award. Can you share what you are thinking in terms of the long-term?

Sustainability is our current quest.  We are planning to seek additional NSF funding, but for the longer term we will be seeking local support, as we build out the "satellite field station" metaphor (and its reality).  

    We also feel that we are converging on a model that we hope to write up and make available for other similar partnerships around the country, perhaps with some coaching from our team. 

Suggestions welcome!

I appreciate that! Are you familiar with The GLOBE Program? They do something similar but internationally and more broadly Earth System Science. You have much more focused resources and curricular support for teachers but there might be some potential for collaboration. GLOBE is funded by NASA and has "Partners" in almost every US state, as well as membership in over 100 countries. 

Yes I am aware of GLOBE -- it's hard not to be!  It's a remarkable program, and of course there are important simililarities with the Climate Lab, and with many other programs. (The International Biological Program is one important precursor, and some classic phenology projects, like lilac phenology, were developed for, or widely disseminated through the IBP).  Our "satellite field station" approach represents a somewhat different, place-based model, with (we hope!) different affordances and opportunities. And challenges. 

Hi Brian - Great project.  A general question for many of our projects is, "what tools or approaches could help create introductions among educators and scientists in ways that good work - such as happening with The Climate Lab - becomes standard practice?" One network that has been facilitating cross-disciplinary relationships for more than a decade is the "New England Ocean Sciences Education Collaborative" (http://www.neosec.dreamhosters.com/). I imagine a future in which participation in outdoor citizen science and habitat restoration projects is as common as participation in youth soccer and online gaming.  There are multiple benefits for learning, physical health, mental health and building social ties (social capital).  How can our various projects be leveraged and scaled to create such a future?

Hey John, 

   I've been aware of NEOSEC for the past few years (thanks to Billy Spitzer and some folks at the Seacoast Science Center in Portsmouth).  I wonder whether it's time for such groups in NE to get together and think about alliance/collaboration/mutual reinforcement...
   I for sure agree that such experiences ought to be common and "taken for granted" parts of science education and community life — and I've often wanted to help teachers see themselves in a continuum from learners to professional scientists -- a science community that is both learning and doing science, with lots of  mutual exchange.  

    Maybe we should get together and think about how to move the conversation forward???