In this month’s SciStarter podcast, we’re heading back to school to see how teachers and even college professors are making citizen science a part of their classroom instruction. Participating in real science conducted by actual researchers can make science lessons come alive for students at all grade levels. Education leaders in Florida, North Carolina and Texas share their perspectives.
Citizen Science Goes to School
Learn about integrating citizen science into higher education settings:
Citizen Science in Higher Education Training Module
Projects and Websites mentioned in this podcast include:
Undergraduate Student Experiences with Citizen Science Network (USECitSci)
Podcast Transcript:
Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together
Season 3, Episode 9: Citizen Science Goes to School
[THEME MUSIC]
Host: Bob Hirshon
Welcome to Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together, coming to you from SciStarter’s Virtual World Headquarters. This month, we’re heading back to school to see how teachers and even college professors are making citizen science a part of their classroom instruction.
I’ve helped track capture and take blood samples from alligators in the Everglades, and also had to teach a classroom full of middle schoolers. And I can say unequivocally, that teaching preteens was way more challenging and terrifying. Teaching is one of the hardest jobs and science teachers in particular have to help students understand a mountain of complex and counterintuitive concepts. And generally, teachers are not enthusiastic about adding new activities and challenges to their already jam-packed curriculum. So you might be surprised to hear that 1000s of teachers ranging from pre K to college are embracing citizen science as a way to help their children succeed in science. Broward County in southern Florida is the nation’s sixth largest school system with over 250,000 students. They are leading the way on the use of citizen science in school. They have partnered with SciStarter to integrate side projects into their online education management system. Broward uses a popular system called Canvas. We have with us Dr. Lisa Milenkovic, supervisor for STEM and computer science for Broward County Public Schools. She was instrumental in bringing citizen science to Broward. Hey, Lisa, so good to talk with you.
Lisa Milenkovic
Yes. Nice to chat with you, too. Yeah.
Bob
So you’re really involved with the entire integration of SciStarter with the schools. And I really wanted to learn how that came about. Because it’s it’s not easy. I know, having been at least tangentially involved with school districts and science curriculum, to get something new to happen. So could you tell us how this whole SciStarter Broward County thing came together?
Lisa
But it certainly hasn’t been quick, because we’re a large district and nothing happens quick here. But it started way back with with space microbes, and Science Cheerleaders, and having signed up online to have teachers, as our back to school meeting, take them back to school. We had a science cheerleader come out and had teachers swab their shoes and their phones for microbes. And I swabbed the banister at our building. And that one swab was one of the 48 that got to go to the Space Station. Ah, that’s when I first met Darlene actually in person.
Bob
Oh, right. So before Darlene Cavalier founded SciStarter, she had the Science Cheerleaders, you know, bringing cheerleaders who were also scientists out to our public schools. So what drew you to that?
Lisa
I have a thing with if their students are doing real science, they’d be more engaged. So trying to get students to do real science. And that was my way of introducing it to all the science teachers in the district. I was Science and STEM Supervisor at the time.
Bob
Oh, wow. And why do you think it’s important for students to do actual science with actual researchers, as opposed to, you know, the demonstrations and the dissections and the things that you kind of do in the traditional science classroom?
Lisa
It engages them, and they know that it’s real. I always say that students can see right through fake relevance. We give them a scenario, they see through that; they know that that’s not real. But here, they can actually sometimes even talk to the scientists, if they have questions. And hear exactly how their data is being used and why data is important, and why they have to be careful on collecting data. So it gives them a new perspective.
Bob
And you’ve integrated it– and again, I haven’t been that involved with current education– but I guess you have an online utility called Canvas. And you have worked this into that.
Lisa
Yeah, Canvas is our learning management system. And we actually started using that pre- COVID. And so we were lucky as a district that we had Canvas. And it was easy to move into online learning because of that, but it’s also what every teacher gets their coursework in Canvas, and students are used to going into Canvas for the coursework. So we now have an integration. It’s called an LTI integration, where they could go in and create an assignment then assign a citizen science project. And these are curated ones that we’ve reached out and realized that are easy to integrate in the classroom, and we’ve given them the resources to do that.
Bob
And then how do they grade this sort of thing, or is that even important?
Lisa
They’re graded on… Well, the students have to make observations and they do have a worksheet that goes along with it and a rubric that we’ve developed for all the projects. And it’s not as important to grade. I mean, what’s important is that they’re doing science, you know. So it’s a reflection on what they’ve learned. Most of it is tied to what they’re learning in the classroom. And that’s how we’ve selected the activities. We also have a custom project builder. So once the students and teachers have done a lesson or two of citizen science project, and have contributed to a project, they maybe they have a question and they can create their own project. So we haven’t used it a whole lot yet. But I’m looking forward to the science fair projects where it’s a student coming up with an idea, and then sending out their link bird collecting data. And it can be data collected all over the world. And they can be the scientists.
Bob
So cool. Do you have any feedback from the teachers yet on how it’s going? Or is it still too early?
Lisa
The teachers that have used it love it. We still have a lot of– we have a lot of teachers here in Broward. So we haven’t reached anywhere near capacity yet. But I think the ones that have used it, I think enjoy it, and they find it easy to use, and we’re constantly tweaking it and adding more projects. That’s I think we’re going to grow as adding more projects just like SciStarter does and just pulling more projects from SciStarter.
Bob
And have you heard from other school districts, they’re interested in this?
Lisa
Not yet. But I think that after this, maybe after this, we’re you know, we’re available to chat with people if they’d like to. And, you know, it’s in Canvas, but I think it’s an LTI, if they talk to the tech people, they can pull it into other learning management systems as well.
Bob
Okay. Anything else you’d like to share?
Lisa
No. Well, that I think our students and our teachers really like being real, real scientists and contributing to something larger than ourselves.
Bob
Thanks, Lisa. Sheryl Arriola also works for Broward County Public Schools. She is Instructional Facilitator for STEM and computer science and works directly with the teachers there. We’re speaking with her from her busy back-to-school-week Broward County Office. Hey, Cheryl, thanks for taking time to speak with us.
Sheryl Arriola
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
Bob
So, as I understand it, you’re involved with introducing teachers to citizen science and how they can work it into the classroom. And I imagine with all the things teachers have going on, there might be some trepidation like, “oh, it’s one more thing I have to do. And how am I going to learn this?” So how’s it going? What’s the reaction to teachers? When you say, “Yeah, we’re going to add this new thing.”
Sheryl
Usually, teachers are very excited about bringing SciStarter into their classrooms, because it can help meet the standards that they’re teaching in a way that students see the value and the connection to real world problems.
Bob
Yeah, and I imagine, just from what I’ve seen of the Next Generation Science Standards– and I might be a little bit behind with this– but a lot of the things that were added, were the real life experiences, seeing how things are connected, collecting, doing a lot of the things that weren’t a part of the original textbooks. So I imagine, you know, perhaps this is actually solving– helping to solve a problem for them.
Sheryl
Yes, I think I think it manages many content area standards, to hit them at the same time. So whether or not it’s ELA that they’re having to write down and record and narrate their findings and descriptions of environmental factors. It’s also looking at the data collected and statistical analysis. So they’re hitting the math standards. Many times it’s a community involvement, so it’s civic engagement, geography, because it’s connecting to latitude longitude, and it’s geo tagging them for their contributions. And then of course, it goes without saying as far as science standards, you know, connections to, you know, living things, ecosystems and limiting factors. And it even touches on, because they’re using technology, in many of the cases, it’s touching on computer science standards. So it really is cross disciplinary and interdisciplinary in its approach, and I think teachers love that aspect of it.
Bob
Wow. So I’m kind of old school, I didn’t realize that science teachers would be responsible for all these other things, interdisciplinary, so I guess that’s part of the new way the frameworks are now…
Sheryl
Well, you know, a lot of teachers like to cover, especially in elementary school, so they teach all content areas. So if you could have a unit of study that incorporates a project that is cross-curricular, then that’s very helpful. And of course, you know, we’re all reading teachers, we’re all math teachers. So even within the content area, you know, we’re asked to also address other content area standards, so students see the interconnection between disciplines, that it’s not just a silo, that it actually is across content areas. And I think it’s more valuable for students to see that.
Bob
Great. Are there particular projects that you use to introduce them to citizen science? Or how do you kind of go about it?
Sheryl
We have about 15, right now that are in our Canvas LTI. So we have like Project squirrel, we have Seek by iNaturalist, we have the GLOBE suite of projects. We have– there’s so many. And so teachers will choose from that to assign to their students. So we use several to model like when we have them in training, we like the GLOBE Observer: Clouds. So we’ll take them outside to do some training on that particular project. We like Project Squirrel, because while we’re outside looking at clouds, we could also track the squirrel numbers in that environment. So there’s so many projects, and like I said, we’re constantly finding new ones that we’re like, this is a great fit for our content area. Let’s add that to our project portal.
Bob
And what’s an LTI?
Sheryl
It’s the kind of an interface so that it’s an external tool that’s embedded inside of our learning management system, which is Canvas. And so they don’t have to go elsewhere to assign it. It’s embedded as part of that platform.
Bob
Wow, and how do teachers– I mean, or maybe they don’t– but do they grade these experiences? Because that’s something that’s not inherent in the original SciStarter, there’s no grades or ranking or anything like that.
Sheryl
Yes, so teachers, it will auto grade. So as they complete their participation and submit their data collection sheet, then it will, depending on how the teacher has set up the assignment, that particular aspect of completion can be worth, you know, 100% of the grade value. Or we also have a very important reflection piece that if students complete the data collection, and then also have the reflection piece that’s part of that grade, and teachers have the privilege of deciding how much weight is given to the actual project completion, and then the reflection piece. And so it will auto grade that and give them credit for it. And then the teacher has, once they’ve reviewed the submission, they can adjust the grade accordingly.
Bob
Great. Now, is it too early? Or do you have any, you know, idea of how it’s going? Has it been tried with students? And have you gotten feedback from the teachers? How, where are we now?
Sheryl
Well, we’re a couple of days a couple of weeks into our new school year. And I have some teachers elementary school that are working with the projects. They did it last year, they’re continuing implementing. I haven’t heard from them yet. But I know based on their contributions last year, they definitely were going to start the year with some of the projects. I have a high school that has just that attended my summer training. And they are already they were so excited about it, that they went back to their school, recruited several other of their team members. They’re already hit the ground running, they’re doing the iNaturalist project. And they’ve they signed up to do the Fairchild Garden challenge as well, which is unique to us as well. So we definitely have a lot of traction, a lot of excitement. And I’m currently pushing out emails to lend my support and come to their schools if they need assistance and help with anything to help them be successful with implementation.
Bob
That is great. Is there anything else you want to share or anything I just haven’t asked about that you want to talk about?
Sheryl
No, we just very excited about our partnership with SciStarter and looking forward to a successful year of getting more teachers on board and assigning projects to their students.
Bob
Great. All right. Well, thanks so much for being with us and sharing your perspective.
Sheryl
Real pleasure. Thank you.
Bob
While Sheryl works across the K 12 spectrum in Broward County, our next two guests specialize in citizen science for the college classroom. Tobin Walton is Assistant Professor of Sociology at North Carolina A&T State University, and Caren Cooper is Associate Professor of Public Science at North Carolina State University. All right, hi, Tobin and Caren, thanks for joining us.
Tobin Walton
Thank you for having us, Bob.
Caren Cooper
It’s great to be here.
Bob
Great. Okay. So as I understand it, you guys are working on adapting citizen science towards use in higher education, or adopting higher education people to use citizen science through tutorials and things. So can you explain a little bit about why you’re doing this and and how citizen science can be used in higher education?
Tobin
Oh, yeah, most certainly. And I guess my first response would be, because I love a challenge. It has been quite challenging. But, you know, one of the things we hear from our students consistently is that, you know, the coursework they do, particularly in STEM fields is just not directly related to their everyday lives, and the people in their communities. And so citizen science for myself, as well as my colleagues, is really a way to try to show students the relevance of science and research and social sciences, in particular for myself as a sociologist. So that’s, that’s one of my primary motivations here, for sure.
Bob
Okay, what do you think, Caren?
Caren
Yeah, there’s a lot of reasons that instructors of higher ed want to use citizen science in their teaching. And it really, I mean, it varies with the field. So like, some are, like we have instructors who are teaching English, like first year English courses, instructors who are teaching math, who are in communication, all kinds of things other than even just like biology and ecology, environmental sciences. So a whole lot of different disciplines find it useful for students to have, like hands-on experiences, being part of scientific efforts, that are, that are really large group efforts, and that are real: that have real scientific questions, where their data are meaningful and useful. And, and how they use it really varies, right? Like some are interested in, in students working with the data that come from those projects. Others, like the English classes are interested in having students write about those experiences. So it can really vary. Some want their students to learn different skills in the field, observational skills, learn about the scientific method. You know, so it really varies. But the there’s just so many different advantages that what we’ve seen is that, like I said, there’s instructors all across campus, and these teaching all these different courses that are interested in using citizen science. And so the challenge for Tobin and I in our teams was to find ways to help prepare instructors to use it to the best advantage.
Bob
Yeah, so that was my next question. How are you preparing them?
Tobin
Well, I’d be happy to take that one. So we have gone through a couple of different approaches to working with faculty. We had begun with some workshops and just some sort of meetings where we’ve talked about citizen science and give faculty you know, an introduction to what it is and what it could be if they brought it into their course. We just finished this summer a Citizen Science Faculty Fellows program both at North Carolina State and North Carolina A&T, my Institution. And for our side of that Fellows program, it was a six week, I’ll say intensive, but it was it was not all that intensive. But it was, I’d say, an hour, a week of meetings with a citizen science mentor, as well as in probably two or three hours of preparation where the faculty were sort of on their own to explore some of the ideas that they worked with their mentor on. And each of those faculty fellows came out with a citizen science module for their course that they’re going to implement this fall. So we’re really excited to see what turns out with those things. And as Caren said, we had faculty from English, we had faculty from math preparation. We had faculty from physics, we had faculty from Sociology, Psychology, Engineering. So it’s really been been quite an experience to see how faculty can really adapt what citizen science is for use in their classroom.
Bob
Wow. And is that a model for, is that six week program something that might happen at other universities?
Tobin
We would love to do that. And we would love to share our experiences, both the good and the bad. And on how to put something like that together. Most definitely.
Caren
Yeah, we did similar– well, both of our institutions had our instructors do two self-guided online tutorials by themselves first. And one was the Foundations of Citizen Science tutorial on SciStarter. And then the second was the Citizen Science and Higher Ed tutorial that Tobin and I led the creation of. And so they did those on their own first, well, I guess they did it in tandem with yours, Tobin. Anyway, and then at NC State, instead of six weeks we scrunched ours into two full days. And so we just tried it a different way. But what was really fun was when we had the summer Faculty Fellows at both of our institutions come together for like, for sharing all of their work with each other and getting feedback and finding connections about like what they were doing similarly you know, all the places we had synergies and learning from each other, was really great. And then also discussing ways that we’ll all join forces in, sort of, in assessing the learning outcomes, assessing what works and what doesn’t. So we can all figure out how to improve this process going forward.
Bob
Wow. And so for listeners who aren’t there, and maybe missed out on that, and, but are intrigued by this, how do they get involved?
Tobin
Well, I would say Caren mentioned, the self-paced tutorial that she and I created together, and that is available on SciStarter. And that is definitely a way to sort of get your feet wet, we really tried to set it up so that someone who hasn’t thought about using citizen science or maybe doesn’t even know what citizen science might be, much less how they might bring it into their university course, they can participate in that tutorial, and really get a foundational understanding of, of all of the things that they might need and the benefits that it might bring.
Caren
And in that, in that tutorial, also, we talk about some other resources, and one that’s really useful is called the USE CitSci network, which stands I can’t remember what it stands for now. It’s like Undergraduate Student Experiences in Citizen Science. Yeah, that’s it. And that is a research coordination network. And that, that everyone who’s in higher ed and is using citizen science or interested in it is encouraged to join and just be part of that network of people. So it’s similar to like, sort of the network that Tobin and I have at our two institutions, but it’s broader, and it’s just like all institutions coming together.
Bob
And so what’s next, you’ve done this tutorial, and you’ve just had your, your intensive, extensive, but not too scary, summer program. What’s next?
Tobin
So yeah, so now we get to turn the faculty loose this fall with their students, and they will go ahead and execute those modules. As Caren had said, we are certainly interested in getting some feedback from both the faculty and the students in terms of whether this has enhanced their learning outcomes. You know, as well as just practical issues faced by faculty, we want to try to get some information on just to learn about better and worse ways to try to implement this stuff. One of the things that I’ve found challenging that I’m really excited to learn from this fall is just the way that students interface with the various instructions on how to engage with citizen science. And so we’ve, we’ve had in these faculty fellows, a diverse away, it’s sort of like a, you know, an experimental bed of different ways to interface with the students in terms of what they want them to do. And so I think we will come away with with a lot of learning from from that better and worse ways to try to interact with your students and bring them into this process.
Bob
Great. Anything else you’d like to share?
Tobin
I would like to add one more thing, and I appreciate the opportunity. You know, one of the benefits as well, you know, it’s, of course, this is all about students. But one of the things I find as well is that faculty, especially younger faculty are interested in, you know, improving their teaching, and are interested in using evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. And, you know, there’s a joke within academia that, you know, a lot of us as faculty, you know, we know our content area, but we’re not necessarily trained as teachers. So, there’s, you know, a lot of interest among faculty, you know, to learn things about experiential learning, active learning, inquiry-based learning. And what’s really been cool to learn about citizen science, from my perspective, is that citizen science provides sort of some material that can really be a cornerstone of any of those approaches to teaching and learning. So faculty really get excited when you know, they want to learn about experiential learning and they find out that, wow, citizen science can really give me some great things to do within this broader pedagogical approach.
Caren
And I guess I’ll add to that with students, like, one of the things I think students most dislike is just busy work, right. They don’t don’t want to do meaningless work; like they want to learn things, but they don’t want to necessarily do things that are that are meaningless or just assigned for the sake of having an assignment or, or proving that they know something. And so I think there is that appeal of citizen science and of, of having assignments where they’re doing something that matters.
Bob
Great. All right. Well, thanks so much for for sharing with us.
Tobin
Thank you for having us. It’s been great..
Caren
Yeah, thanks for having us here.
Bob
Jill Nugent is here with us today from the Dallas area. Jill is on the SciStarter education team and cover citizen science for the National Science Teachers Association and Discover Magazine. She’s also an online science faculty member for Southern New Hampshire University. Hey, Jill, thanks for being with us.
Jill Nugent
Thanks so much, Bob. I’m happy to be here.
Bob
So citizen science in school. I mean, I can imagine, teachers, if they have so much on their plate, how do they react to this idea that now they’re also going to be doing, you know, scientific research in the classroom?
Jill
Oh, my gosh, great question. Yeah, I think once they see the engagement with the kids of any age K through 12, college and beyond, our lifelong learners. But classroom teachers for K 12, oh, my gosh, once they see the engagement the students have, I think they’re sold on the idea. It’s, it’s for everyone. It’s truly science for all.
Bob
Oh, wow. And so does it fit in with like the teacher standards and state frameworks, and then all these different things they have to meet in their hour or something? How does it fit in with that?
Jill
Absolutely. In fact, one thing, citizen science really helps to model the science practices of the Next Generation Science Standards. So it fits in so well. It provides students with authentic opportunities to do science, and engage across science, the core ideas, science practices, and the cross-cutting concepts in science. So it’s such a great fit for the curriculum.
Bob
Do you have any examples of like what kinds of projects are they doing, and maybe some specific SciStarter projects?
Jill
Great question. Yeah. And if you’re listening, be sure and check out SciStarter.org. For the project finder. There’s 1000s of projects that are a great fit for all age groups. And you can even select the ones that have curriculum materials. But really, from astronomy to zoology and everything in between, there’s a project for every age group, every classroom. I know here where I am, a lot of a lot of the classrooms are getting involved in Project Based Learning, studying the migration of the monarch butterfly south from the US, Canada, the United States, and then it’ll overwinter in Mexico. So that’s a that’s one that the classrooms are going to immerse in this fall. But truly, from the physical sciences, Earth sciences, life sciences, the project finder lists projects for really for any discipline, any age band, there’s something for everybody.
Bob
Well, let’s see any, any other examples of teachers you’ve worked with, or classes or schools? Just to give people a more concrete example of how this kind of works?
Jill
Oh, sure. Oh, my gosh, so many great examples out there. One area that I’m getting really excited about, really across K 12. You know, elementary, middle and high school. In our area, we’re seeing a lot of teachers kind of creating an outdoor learning area right there on campus, whether it’s an elementary and really all the way to college. You know, they’re saying “Okay, from the project finder, what projects can be done right here on our school grounds?” That’s been really exciting, whether it’s, you know, phenology studies watching the seasons, and you don’t have to have a robust like outdoor garden. It’s amazing if you do, but we had a school here who they started with a hummingbird feeder. And they did the Journey North Hummingbird Migration monitoring, and that led to them developing a whole outdoor learning area on the campus. So yeah, I can start with something like a bird feeder, a hummingbird feeder, and then grow from there as, you know, people get excited about it, the school building gets excited, everyone’s talking about it. And yeah, so the sky’s the limit. I would say if you’re interested in starting, start small. You know, find a project to just going to start small, and it’ll organically grow from there. Because again, it’s not only there the students engaged, but other teachers, the principal parents, and it’ll organically grow from there.
Bob
Okay. All right. Anything else you’d like to share? Or I assume we have probably a lot of educators in the audience for this podcast, anything else that you want to say to them or share?
Jill
Oh, my gosh, yes. Just I would say dive into it. It’s a great way to immerse your students in real world research anywhere, anytime. You know, we saw during the last few years, students can do it at home, in their backyard, online, in a park in the classroom, in the school yard. So really, wherever your learners are located, you can do citizen science.
Bob
Great. All right. Thanks so much, Jill.
Jill
Thanks, Bob.
Bob
If you’d like to learn more about citizen science in the classroom, we’ve got the perfect resource page for you at SciStarter.org. It’s at SciStarter.org/education. Big surprise. You’ll find links to grade-appropriate projects, training modules and links to Jill’s CitSci for teachers columns. That’s at SciStarter.org/education. Well, that’s all we’ve got for you this time. I’m Bob Hirshon. Thanks for listening.
[THEME MUSIC]
Bob
This podcast is brought to you each month by SciStarter where you will find 1000s of citizen science projects, events and tools. It’s all at SciStarter.org That’s S C I S T A R T E R dot org. SciStarter’s founder is Darlene Cavalier. And thanks so much to you, the listener and the citizen scientist for getting involved and making a difference. If you have any ideas that you want to share with us, and any things you want to hear on this podcast, get in touch with us at info at SciStarter.org. Once again, our email address is info at SciStarter.org. Thanks again and I’ll see you next time.
