NC State Citizen Science Campus: 2020 Citizen Science & Higher Education Symposium

On September 12, the NC State Citizen Science Campus hosted the 2020 Citizen Science & Higher Education Symposium.

Learn more about the NC State Citizen Science Campus.

The event explored questions such as: can citizen science improve higher education? Can higher education improve citizen science? What roles can community colleges, private colleges, land-grant universities, historically black colleges and universities, and other institutions of higher education play in introducing students to citizen science? How can local communities partner with students and faculty in higher education in carrying out citizen science for environmental justice and actionable solutions? How can science centers, museums, and environmental educators partner with institutions of higher education for best practices in citizen science? How might K-12 teachers, government agencies, and industry partner with institutions of higher education for innovations in citizen science? Explore these questions and many, many more.

This academic event was open to any citizen science practitioners, students, researchers, educators, organizers, and participants. People took part to learn from other citizen science programs, share findings, and discuss ideas while networking with a community of citizen science professionals. Attendees enjoyed flash talks, workshops, posters, and a virtual networking lunch.

Watch the recordings, below.

Recordings

Introduction: Dr. Caren Cooper, Associate Professor, Forestry and Environmental Resources & Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence in Leadership in Public Science, NC State

Keynote: Dr. Sacoby Wilson presented a talk titled “Environmental Justice and Citizen Science 3.0: The Call for More Just, Equitable, Inclusive, and Action-Oriented Science”

Dr. Wilson is an environmental health scientist with over ten years of experience working in community-university partnerships on environmental health and justice issues. Dr. Wilson is an associate professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH) and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park.

Caitlin Stuckey: Podcasting to Communicate Science: Using Citizen Science Studies (recording to come)

Julie Tuttle: Teaching academic writing with citizen science: a framework for initiating student-led scientific inquiry in higher education (recording to come)

Mara Evans: Citizen Science in a Large Enrollment Biology Class (with Dr. Kelly Hogan) (recording to come)

Allen Hurlbert: Using the Caterpillars Count! data visualization tools for inquiry-based learning in ecology (recording to come)

Zakiya Holmes Leggett: Implementing Citizen Science into the classroom to expose undergraduate STEM and non-STEM majors (recording to come)

Julie Horvath: Connecting monkey and human health through citizen science: informal engagement of middle school to medical and veterinary students. (recording to come)

Jenna Marie Hartley & Anna Poston: Picking up more than just litter: Emboldening teachers’ confidence through a citizen science based marine debris curriculum (recording to come)

Megan Lupek: Opportunities and challenges: Assigning citizen science projects in a distance education environmental science course (recording to come)

Daiza Norman & Lauren Ramilo: Involving Students of Different Disciplines in Research using the Delftia Citizen Science Project (recording to come)

Heather Vance-Chalcraft: Using Citizen Science To Incorporate Research Into Introductory Biology Courses at Multiple NC Universities (recording to come)

Christina Roche: Fermented Food Workshops Teach Citizen Scientists Hands-On About Health (recording to come)

Nancy Sheehan: Tune into Nature’s Seasonal Cycles. Help Track Migration with Journey North (recording to come)

Bradley Allf: The Modern Citizen Scientist: Multi-Project Participation

Jonathan Marchal: Linking University Researchers to K-8 Students via ecoEXPLORE (recording to come)

Tom Randall: DIY Biology in the Triangle (recording to come)

Omega Wilson & Brenda Wilson: Community Based Science for Legal Compliance in Higher Education (recording to come)

Terry Allen Gates: Bridging the communication gap between researchers and K12 faculty when talking about citizen science (recording to come)

Conclusion: Valerie Johnson (Shaw University), Al Richmond (Community-Campus Partnerships for Health), Kwesi Brookins (NCSU)

Sponsors

NC State’s Leadership in Public Science cluster

Community-Campus Partnership for Health

Citizen Science Association

Duke Energy

SciStarter

EcoExplore – an initiative of the NC Arboretum

The Science House

Steering Committee

Caren Cooper, NCSU, Leadership in Public Science cluster

Valerie Johnson, Shaw University, Dean of School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities

Al Richmond, Executive Director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

Kwesi Craig Brookins, NCSU, Director of Community-University Partnership

Categories: CitSci Research, Events

Tags: , , ,

About the Author

Caroline Nickerson

Caroline Nickerson

Caroline Nickerson is an advisor at SciStarter, where she assists with the Citizen Science Month Program, SciStarter’s Corporate Volunteer Programs and other programmatic and outreach efforts. Caroline is a Master of Public Policy graduate from American University, where she was a Reilly Environmental Policy Scholar, and is a current PhD student at the University of Florida. She also works with the UF-VA Bioethics Unit, the Christensen Project, Florida Community Innovation and other organizations. She was the 2019 Cherry Blossom Princess representing the state of Florida and the grand prize scholarship winner at Miss Earth USA 2021 as Miss Louisiana Earth.