Citizen Science is a constantly evolving phenomenon where citizens assist scientists with collecting and analyzing data. For example, in the project that I developed, citizens would classify various photos of the solar system taken by the Spitzer or Herschel telescopes. Citizens take a brief training course on classifying images as either clouds, not clouds, or in-between. I conducted this project with 20 students in my online Honors Chemistry class through the North Carolina Virtual Public School. I also conducted this project with some adaptation with two sections of my Honors Virtual Reality I class at Salisbury High School {This course is a locally developed STEM elective course where students engage in the use of technology to solve problems}. A total of 43 students from Honors Virtual Reality I completed this project. I also implemented this project with 26 students in my regular Chemistry class at Salisbury High School. Having done this project both entirely online and entirely face to face provided with very similar experiences. The end result is that students were able to engage in Citizen Science and make a meaningful impact. Their work will allow scientists to more effectively map out the universe based on the responses that they received.
The project was separated into three phases with my face to face students and four phases with my online students. In each case, students selected a background question to answer for their beginning stage. Those questions included the following:
• Why are the Spitzer and Herschel Telescopes unique?
• How are stars born? How do stars die?
• Why is IR radiation used to analyze images from space?
• How was the universe formed?
In Phase 2, students actively engaged in classifying images from the telescopes. Initially students were provided with a brief tutorial from the website. I also provide a screencast to help students access and use the site (http://screencast.com/t/GH2QqcCw). Students then classified a minimum of 10 images and took a screenshot of them. The screenshots were then placed in a document where students showed their classification and explained their rationale.
In Phase 3, students reflected on their experience and the importance of Citizen Science. Here is a brief list of what several students shared in their reflections:
- "Citizen science is important because it gets the citizens involved in scientific activities and discoveries."
- "It helps scientist conduct their experiments in a timely manner while allowing for average citizens to feel apart of it."
- "Citizen science is important because it not only gives another opinion on very debatable science, but it also helps to further research in a faster manner. Citizen science is a great way for people that aren't scientists to be active in discoveries and get educated."
- "It is important for us to be involved in important studies and research. A lot of people can accomplish things when working towards a goal that would take a smaller group of people years to do. It expedites research and it provides a service in an area that we are currently exploring. It is also important for citizens to be involved in science because it allows us to direct research towards things that we feel need to be discovered."
- "Citizen science is important because it helps scientists and citizens alike. It helps scientists with their work by eliminating some of the "busy work" that is involved with research. It also keeps citizens aware of what is going on in science and in the world."
- "Overall, citizen science is beneficial because a large number of people are willing to put forth the time and effort for the same goal. These volunteers make it possible to complete big experiments that would have otherwise been costly. And, since there can be a lot of people, the work gets done quicker, and simultaneously involves common individuals."
At the beginning of this school in my face to face school, all teachers were required to develop a professional development plan (PDP). I shared about Citizen Science in my department meeting and many of my colleagues added this as part of their professional development plan. Recently during our science PLC, I shared this project. As a result several of my colleagues are actively developing Citizen Science Projects to integrate into their classes. We have also engaged in many discussions about the need to help all our students see the importance of science in their daily life and how Citizen Science can provide the conduit for doing just that.
There are many opportunities for Citizen Science projects. Many involve Life Science areas such as collecting data on various species and their geographic locations. I encourage you to research Citizen Science opportunities and to get involved.
If you would like a copy of my Citizen Science Project, request a copy by emailing whitsonba@rss.k12.nc.us.
The North Carolina Musesum of Natural Sciences provides additional opportunities for Citizen Science - Learn more at http://naturalsciences.org/research-collections/citizen-science
To learn more about various Citizen Science opportunities, visit Scientific American at http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/
For a clearing house of various Citizen Science project, visit https://www.zooniverse.org/. This is where I was able to learn about the Milky Way Project (http://www.milkywayproject.org/) that I used to develop the Citizen Science project.
Brian Whitson has taught high school science and STEM courses at Salisbury High School for over 14 years. He is also an instructor for the NC Virtual Public School and an adjunct chemistry instructor for Catawba College. Follow him on Twitter at scibri
No comments:
Post a Comment