Getting started with citizen science
In this recorded professional learning session, Greta Dromgool from the Science Learning Hub and Sarah Morgan, Project Manager for SouthSci, South Auckland's Participatory Science Platform, unpack what citizen science might look like at your school.
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The number of opportunities to be involved as citizen scientists continues to grow. How are teachers using them to make science education more relevant and engaging? What potential do they have for supporting school science, and how can they be used to develop students’ science capabilities?
We introduce you to a range of citizen science projects and, using real-life New Zealand examples, show how schools are making the most of the exciting opportunities out there. Want to give it a go but not sure where to start? This recorded session is a great start for you!
Getting started with citizen science
This is an edited recording of the webinar Getting started with citizen science.
Getting started with citizen science – slideshow
This slideshow, from the webinar Getting started with citizen science, provides additional support for the video tutorial.
Use the Slideshow menu for further options, including view full screen, and go here for the download option.
You can download the video and slideshow presentation.
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Index
| Topic | Slideshow number(s ) | Video timecode |
|---|---|---|
Introducing the Science Learning Hub and presenters | 1–4 | 00:00 |
Index | 5 | 03:17 |
Purpose | 6 | 03:29 |
What is citizen science? | 7–12 | 03:47 |
Participant experiences | 13 | 09:19 |
Why bother?, Science capabilities | 14–19 | 10:41 |
Connecting with scientists | 20–21 | 14:43 |
Citizen science projects | 22–27 | 15:25 |
Participatory science and longer-term projects | 28–31 | 18:29 |
Tips for designing a project | 32–33 | 26:07 |
SLH links, keep in touch and thanks | 34 | 32:13 |
Nature of science
Scientific investigations involve the collection of relevant data. Citizen scientists contribute to investigations by acting as many sets of eyes with which to make observations and record data. Scientists then use their expertise to make sense of the information collected. Even children can be scientists, provided they follow scientific procedures.
Being part of a citizen science project and acknowledging students’ contribution as part of a bigger research process is a great way of building students’ competence in participating and contributing and individuals’ confidence in learning.
More on citizen science
Use the Hub’s citizen science portal to locate relevant online citizen science (OCS_ projects. Find out how to make the most of using this section in the article Using online citizen science projects.
This is the first of two webinars looking at citizen science. In the next webinar we speak with Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize winner Carol Brieseman, who shared her experiences using online citizen science projects in the classroom. The recording of this webinar is available here.
The number of opportunities to be involved as citizen scientists continues to grow, and teachers are increasingly using them to make science education more relevant and engaging and to develop students’ science capabilities. Find out what being a citizen scientist means in this article and learn how year 4 students learned to be citizen scientists while learning about butterflies in this teacher PLD.
The webinar mentions a range of projects – explore these and more in the Citizen science section on the Science Learning Hub. Find one that sparks an interest and see these tips for planning your science programme.
The Hub also has articles, activities and other PLD under the citizen science topic.
Useful links
Discover more about the Participatory Science Platform by exploring the Curious Minds website or visit the many stories on the Science Learning Hub.
See the Citizen Science Association of Aotearoa NZ (#CitSciNZ) website for lots of information on citizen science and projects in Aotearoa.
Check out the large collection of citizen science resources that we have curated in this Pinterest board.
