Using Citizen Science projects to facilitate science inquiry (goo.gl/W9n3G)

1. Using Citizen Science projects to facilitate science inquiry (http://goo.gl/W9n3G) July 18-19, 2012 Bruce Palmquist Central Washington University

2. Workshop objectives

3. Workshop Schedule Day 1 Day 2 • Do a brief project • Discuss benefits of citizen science projects • Do a brief project • Alignment with curriculum • Citizen science websites • Finding projects • Homework • Do a brief collaborative project • Assessment • Standards • Work on workshop capstone project • Share capstone project • Next steps

4. Engage: Short plant project • We will do a Project BudBurst single report from the CWU Arboretum • Get into groups of 2-3 • Look at the BudBurst Master Plant list • Pick two plants from the list to observe • Download and print out the appropriate Single Report form • We will enter the information later

5. Brainstorm the benefits • Develop obs skills through inquiry • Gets students out of the classroom to explore surroundings • Familiarize students with local plants • Students use all of their senses • Participate in real data • Compare over time • Ability to classify the environment Watch this video

6. Benefits of Citizen Science projects • Many of these projects could not be done any other way • Teach inquiry skills • Get students involved in real science projects • Interact with professional, citizen and student scientists from around the world • Value of GLOBE, an extensive project

7. Online citizen science lab activity • Go to http://goo.gl/YiByT to access the Moon Zoo activity. • Click File → Download as… Microsoft Word. Save to the desktop. • We'll go through the tutorial together. • Analyze 2-3 images. Enter your information on the worksheet. Start to answer the discussion questions. • Discuss the activity • (Save your results for tomorrow.)

8. How do scientists benefit? Based on a supernova identification project • Scientists are freed from doing the initial data analysis • Supernova images are analyzed by multiple people • Multiple people can immediately follow up on interesting candidates • The large number of human classifications collected can be used to improve machine learning algorithms for automated classification.

9. Comprehensive Citizen Science Websites with multiple projects • SciStarter: http://scistarter.com/ • Robust search engine, all types of projects • GLOBE: http://www.globe.gov/home • Many teacher resources, mostly environmental projects • Citizen Science Central: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit • Searchable database, mostly nature-related projects

10. Focused project sets • These sites aren’t as comprehensive but also are not a difficult to use • Zooniverse: https://www.zooniverse.org/ • Mostly astronomy projects • Project Budburst: http://neoninc.org/budburst/ • Monitor plants around the world, teacher resources • Did you feel it?: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/ • Report possible earthquakes in your area

11. You try one • In groups of no more than 3, find a project to work on for the next 30 minutes. • Go to http://scistarter.com/ and use their search engine • Report what you did, and how you could use it in your school • Enter project name and application at http://goo.gl/SPhk3

12. Homework • Homework? • Yes, homework • Read the short article from Middle Ground, a middle school magazine • Think of how you could incorporate a citizen science project into one of your lessons or extra curricular activities

13. Review from yesterday • Worked on two citizen science projects • Discussed the benefits • Found an interesting sample project and shared it on the class listhttp://goo.gl/SPhk3 Seasonal patterns of the Eastern Phoebe

14. Preview of today • Sample collaborative activity - combining our moon zoo data and investigating a student-created hypothesis • Discuss assessment • Practice alignment with a Laser Kit lesson • Discuss standards • Work on capstone project

15. Do people learn science? According to the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, Citizen Science projects… • Increase participant's content knowledge • Do not increase understanding of the scientific process... • unless they are organized in a way that makes participants aware of the scientific process they are involved in

16. Sample collaborative lab activity • Go to http://goo.gl/BcdBZ to access the group version Moon Zoo activity. Today everyone will be working on the same worksheet at the same time. • Work with a partner to develop a hypothesis you could test using your existing data. Enter that on the worksheet. • Enter your data from yesterday. • We'll discuss the questions as a group.

17. Your assessment ideas • Students make a chart or graph • Rubric of what the students should learn • come up with a hypothesis? • prove or disprove hypo? • collect the data? • accuracy of data? • did they come up with another question? • did it lead to more research?

18. Bruce's assessment ideas • Students fill out a template and answer questions (similar to individual Moon Zoo) • Students collaborate on a project to generate and test a hypothesis (similar to today’s Moon Zoo) • Students present their results on a poster either live or via Voicethread • Lots of assessment info at http://www.globe.gov/teaching-and-learning/assessment-tools/overview

19. Alignment with LASER kits • Quickly review lesson 12 from Earth in Space, a Washington LASER Alliance kit typically used in 8th grade found at http://goo.gl/FLiQ4 • Brainstorm how you could integrate the Moon Zoo activity you just did with this lesson • Report back to the class

20. Earth in Space → WA Standards

21. State science standards

22. National Standards Next Generation Sci Standards Common Core Language Arts • Science practice • Crosscutting concepts • Disciplinary core ideas • Emphasis on the design of experiments and design of solutions • Interconnectedness of science, engineering, technology and society • Cite specific text analysis • Follow a multistep process • Integrate verbal and visual information • Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment, and speculation • Compare/contrast information sources

23. Workshop Capstone project • Outline a lesson that incorporates a citizen science project. The outline should include: • Lesson topic and objectives • How the citizen science project will be assessed • Standards addressed by the citizen science project • Language arts reinforced by the citizen science project • Share your lesson with the class verbally and at http://goo.gl/SPhk3

24. Next steps for you • Get comfortable with one citizen science website • Integrate a project into one lesson or one extracurricular activity • Seek out another teacher to do a similar project • Compare results with the other classroom and the rest of the world • Contact CWU for more ideas

25. GLOBE: for advanced interest • The Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program is a worldwide school-based science and education program. • GLOBE began on Earth Day, 1995. There are more than 58,000 GLOBE-trained teachers and over 1.5 million students. • More than 23 million measurements added to the GLOBE database for professional science and school science projects. • This project has a steep learning curve for teachers but potentially the biggest reward.

26. Contact information • Bruce Palmquist • palmquis@cwu.edu • Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education • http://www.cwu.edu/cesme/ • Contact for information about outreach opportunities and equipment loan program