Tools people can use, interpersonal interactions, and guidance from project leaders
Provide many examples and frequent feedback
Practitioners can enable participants to learn through practice by offering a chance to interact with examples of the kind of data that they will be collecting, classifying, or analyzing, and providing feedback about that interaction. For projects that tend to attract one-time engagement, building feedback into the experience may increase individuals’ satisfaction, which can help lead to interest in additional engagement in citizen science.
Example: Galaxy Zoo provides regular and timely feedback regarding data contribution milestones and an extensive up-to-date list of scientific publications that use the data. This enables participants to expand their learning and role within the scientific process. Certain “super users” who were integral to particular discoveries or manuscript development have been named as co-authors or acknowledged in peer-reviewed Galaxy Zoo publications. Citizen scientists, for example, discovered a new class of rapidly-growing star forming galaxies known as “green pea” galaxies, so-called by volunteers due to their small and green appearance in Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging (Cardamone et al, 2009).Link the Project’s Scientific Goals with Its Learning Goals
Frequent feedback from scientists can also connect the project’s scientific goals to its learning goals. Updates about the use of collected data in scientific publications or to advocate for policies capitalize upon the authenticity of participants’ activity. Other possible formats include written documentation shared with participants about how scientists have used the data in the past and might use the data in future; lists of publications; online databases for broader use; education about using results in ways that support civic decision making; and discussions about how project results can be used to inform policy.
Example: here is a video the Natural History Museum commissioned for its long-term monitoring project, Big Seaweed Search. This video was specifically designed to connect the task that volunteers carry out to its scientific purpose. It is about two minutes long and features both the seaweed scientist behind the project explaining its importance and aims, and a youth participant in the programme explaining how to get involved.Encourage Social Interaction
Some participants in citizen science projects desire and/or benefit from engaging in science as a social activity. Community-based participatory citizen science by definition brings together the disparate knowledge of the community, the issue being addressed, and the systems in which the project will unfold. Even individual data collection projects can be structured to communicate to individual participants that they are part of a larger, collective effort.
Activities that facilitate interaction that allows for exploratory learning include online discussion forums, data collection in teams, in-person meetings and enabling participants to verify each others’ contributions. When appropriate, participants may usefully engage in data analysis, have access to the tools necessary to discuss the evidence, and follow/affect the evolving understanding of the project data. Participants might also use and share project results to affect change, help to determine the intended uses of data, and collaborate in the project’s design.
This focus on collective effort allows all participants to be both learners and educators by allowing all voices to bring their knowledge to the discussion to look for the best solution for the community.
Example: The SuperProject is a large urban biodiversity survey run by the Urban Nature Research Center (UNRC) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to better understand nature in the Los Angeles area. NHM scientists partner with and teach participants to make nature observations using smartphones in their own neighbourhoods, by taking and submitting photos - attributed with the date, time, and precise location - twice a month for one year. Museum scientists then use their observations as data to answer scientific questions. Participants can develop their science identity at social gatherings at the museum where participants socialize and conduct surveys near the museum, and interact with the scientists. In addition to learning through the data collection experience, and through training and project materials, participants report that in-person interactions are a major source of learning (Phillips, 2017), particularly due to the diverse and intergenerational nature of these social interactions.Support Participants to Communicate and Apply What They Learn
Communication often prompts participants to reflect on their learning, which can reveal gaps, guide future learning, and support long-term retention. Application allows participants to extend their knowledge to new domains, which is, itself, a kind of learning, and helps with retention. Some ways to do this could include project-related discussions, an asynchronous online discussion, or a reflective prompt for the individual to consider. Other approaches include using results in civic processes or inviting participants to help describe project findings and results in both scientific and nonscientific fora. The opportunities to communicate are closely related to the notion of authenticity in citizen activity discussed above.