As I speak today at the Boston Youth Climate Summit, hosted by the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS), I reflect on the power of citizen science to equip communities to address climate resilience.
Climate resilience refers to our capacity to deal with the impacts of climate-related hazards — including extreme heat, floods, droughts, sea level rise, and storms.
In these conversations, citizen science can provide a data-driven, foundational understanding of how our world is changing, empowering the discussion of community solutions.
Today’s summit brings together young leaders to create real solutions for climate change, and in preparation, I wanted to reflect on some of the work SciStarter has done with MOS, through a program that is close to my heart: the Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities (CSCRC) project.
In 2018, with support from NOAA, and in partnership with SciStarter, Arizona State University, Northeastern University, and the National Informal Science Education Network, MOS started the CSCRC project to engage public participants in citizen science and resilience planning on four climate hazards: extreme heat, extreme precipitation, sea level rise, and drought.
As the team wrote in a paper published after the program, this effort was unique because it used a “‘science-to-civics’ framework, combining participatory data collection with deliberation about potential strategies to build community resilience to climate hazards.”
Bascially, what this project did was activate museums and science centers around the country — the most trusted institutions in the United States — to engage their communities in understanding climate change and environmental problems with citizen science, using that newly created knowledge to engage in conversations via forums about climate solutions.
Though the initiative officially concluded in 2022, the resources, including citizen science projects featured on SciStarter pages for each museum and science center involved in the project, are still available for people to participate in today. These tools continue to support communities in their efforts to address climate hazards and build resilience.
Nationwide Collaboration
The success of the CSCRC project stemmed from the collaboration of over 30 institutions across the country, including:
- Museum of Science, Boston (Boston, MA)
- Museum of Life + Science (Durham, NC)
- Science Museum of Virginia (Richmond, VA)
- Arizona Science Center (Phoenix, AZ)
- Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (Louisville, KY)
- Cape Fear Museum of History and Science (Wilmington, NC)
- SEE Science Center (Manchester, NH)
- ExplorationWorks! (Helena, MT)
- Nurture Nature Center (Easton, PA)
- Museum of Science and Industry (Tampa, FL)
- Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast (Stuart, FL)
- Insights El Paso Science Center (El Paso, TX)
- South Dakota Discovery Center (Pierre, SD)
- Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, OK)
- McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (Concord, NH)
- Cape Cod Museum of Natural History (Brewster, MA)
- The Sky Science Festival (Bowling Green, KY)
- Gateway Science Museum (Chico, CA)
- Pensacola MESS Hall (Pensacola, FL)
- Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (Portland, OR)
- Science Math Resource Center at MSU-Bozeman (Bozeman, MT)
These partners enabled the CSCRC project to engage diverse communities across the nation, prompting people of all ages to document climate hazards, participate in resilience planning, and work toward climate solutions.
What did this program look like across the country?
At the core of this initiative were citizen science projects that invited individuals to collect meaningful environmental data in their communities. Here are some of the projects (PS: you can still participate in these projects today!):
- ISeeChange: Citizens document weather and climate impacts, such as extreme precipitation or heat events, by submitting photos and stories.
- MyCoast: Participants photograph coastal changes, including king tides and storm damage, providing valuable data for resilience planners.
- CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network): Volunteers measure precipitation to help monitor changes in weather.
- GLOBE Land Cover Observer App: Citizen scientists photograph land cover (land cover = what covers the land) for NASA, contributing to watershed health studies.
Insights about Citizen Science and Resilience Planning
The science-to-civics framework used in the CSCRC project was a unique combination of the aforementioned citizen science and public deliberations. In other words, what made this program unique and successful was the combination of citizen science and civic dialogue.
For example, in Boston, participants in the Wicked Hot Boston program contributed extreme heat data via sensors, and that data was later used to create temperature maps that guided discussion between the public and environmental leaders in resilience forums.
One Wicked Hot Boston participant, Alison Field-Juma, reflected on the value of this localized data: “The map is based on real temperature readings from people driving around in their cars, so people connect with that better. The value is added by the data being immediately sensed, not remotely sensed.”
Similarly, in Boston’s Wicked High Tides, citizens documented sea-level rise in Boston through the MyCoast and ISeeChange citizen science projects, contributing to forums where participants deliberated strategies for mitigating this hazard.
To give another example, in Durham, NC, the Museum of Life + Science addressed all four hazards with Climate-Conscious NC’s multi-media communications, citizen science projects, and forums. In a blog post, Max Cawley from the museum wrote, “Citizen science, discussion and deliberation have value in helping to begin to identify address societal problems that are exacerbated by climate change, and for shining a light on the ways that historical and persistent inequities intersect with emerging threats from climate change. They can also help to ensure broad and diverse participation in the hard work of building resilience and coming up with solutions towards a just, equitable, and sustainable world.”
In Cape Cod, MA, one of the teachers who participated in the program said, “I really enjoyed the virtual forum. I think for myself and students it is fun to take on a role and it is helpful to have students address issues from multiple points of view.”
In South Dakota, project lead Anne Lewis wrote in a blog post that the citizen science components of the program, when combined with the forums, changed the way people thought about their watersheds. “Our goal is not just for people to see their watershed, but to feel connected to it as well.”
I also just loved the creativity of the different sites. In Kentucky, a team led by the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage merged art and science by combining ISeeChange observations with a photography contest. They discussed their work on the SciStarter podcast (full episode). Listen to a clip from Perry below!
Continuing the Legacy
Though the formal CSCRC project concluded in 2022, the legacy of these efforts lives on.
As the program evaluation demonstrated, participants left the forums with greater knowledge of climate hazards and a stronger commitment to resilience planning. For many, these experiences laid the groundwork for future civic engagement on climate issues.
Citizen science resources and tools are still available through the SciStarter platform, and communities continue to contribute data to these projects.
I encourage you to contribute in your community! Maybe you can get your friends involved, and then collaborate with a museum or another organization to host a forum, using your citizen science data as a jumping off point for resilience discussions.
So what’s happening today?
As we gather at the Boston Youth Climate Summit, the next generation of leaders will be instrumental in continuing this vital work, using citizen science to address the complex challenges of climate change and resilience.
I am so excited for this joyous occasion, and I can’t wait to see what the students accomplish and what citizen science projects will resonate with them.
And in the meantime, I invite you to visit SciStarter and contribute to a project to start your climate citizen science journey!
