Summary

Citizen Science Projects actively involve the public in scientific research with the goal of generating new scientific knowledge. As such, Citizen Science opens up the opportunity for all members of society to take an active role in research, innovation and in the development of evidence-based actions, from local to international level.

In schools, Citizen Science has the potential to be an integrative approach to link science education and lifeworld experiences, increase meaningful learning and participation in society, and contribute to societal transformation. Whatever your motivations may be, Citizen Science can be a tool to help you approach the school curriculum and reach your educational goals in an organic and meaningful way. 

Studies suggest that shifting the emphasis of the citizen science project from purely scientific testing to matters of concern for the local community serves as a driver for learning and for change by emphasising situational motives and lifeworld contradictions, while contributing to educational targets within the classroom. Studying a curricular topic through lifeworld challenges and real life experiences can work as a motivation factor for students. When using Citizen Science to look for answers on how to tackle local challenges or opportunities, students can become increasingly more engaged with the topic they’re studying, without even realizing that, simultaneously, they are successfully achieving their educational goals and working on school curriculum. For teachers this means that Citizen Science can improve learning and engagement efficacy, generating more relevant and connected experiences, with almost no extra work.

Citizen Science can be a tool to tackle local challenges and opportunities through the implementation of the scientific process. So how can one go from identifying a local challenge or opportunity to creating scientific knowledge through Citizen Science? Through investigation and asking questions! A good scientific question is one that can be answered by observation or testing and therefore needs to be defined, measurable, and controllable. Once you have created a scientific question for your local challenge or opportunity you can find and collaborate with a citizen science project that will allow you to test your scientific question and tackle your local challenge or opportunity.

But how can you start collaborating with existing citizen science projects? And how can you find them? One solution is to find citizen science projects available online. Although you can search for individual projects directly, there's an easier way to start which is to use existing platforms that combine the information of several citizen science projects. These can be national platforms, compiling information of projects of that same country. Or international ones, that combine the information from projects from all over the world.

A few tips to keep in mind while searching for citizen science projects to use in schools are:

-make sure that the protocols used are suitable for student exploration, evaluate the difficulty level and how much assistance you will be offered;

-keep in mind your scientific question about your local challenge or opportunity, to make sure that the project you pick allows you to achieve your initial goals;

-think how you can align the citizen science project with the school curriculum and your educational goals;

-lastly make sure that you have access to the project in your region.

Citizen science can work as a powerful tool to connect science, citizens and their territory. Therefore collaborating with a research project of this sort opens up the possibility to meet community partners, to contact with different careers and to value your community.

Identify researchers, local stakeholders and partners inside your school to collaborate with and then decide how to implement the project in your daily practices. Choose the context in which to work these matters with your students - it could be in formal or non-formal education. Account for the time it takes for your students to be ready to start collaborating and make sure you have all the materials required, and decide on a suitable timetable.

Once you get your project going it is important to monitor its impact, which is a multidimensional and complex task that depends on several variables that are fundamental to take into consideration. In order to measure the success of your citizen science activities in relation to your goals, define the indicators that will allow you to track this, as well as the ways to measure them (survey, interview, photographs) and respective timeline.