Module 5

In this module, we'll look at ways to support student engagement in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and outline connections to additional ELA standards (especially writing, comprehension and speaking and listening standards) while focusing on student agency and identity. In this unit, students will work on analyzing and interpreting their data as well as the data sets they may have engaged with from other sources (like eBird) to determine what changes (if any) they feel they should advocate for based on their learnings as they prepare to share their findings. To prepare for Module 5, we begin by reflecting on the key youth practices from the YCCS Framework highlighted in Module 2.

From Science Identity and Agency in Community and Citizen Science: Evidence & Potential

Key Youth Practices:

1- Take ownership of data quality: We found that when youth are responsible for ensuring rigorous data quality, it positioned students as experts, and encouraged their investment in scientific work. This involved developing an understanding about why we’re engaged in the broader project, what constitutes high quality data for a given CCS project, and gradually releasing responsibility to young people to ensure high quality data collection.

2- Share findings with outside audiences: Our findings also suggested that when youth shared their science findings with outside audiences, they became motivated and took ownership of those findings. This involved youth sharing the results of their scientific work formally and informally with scientists, educators, other young people, local agencies, and members of the public. This may be explained by research showing that accountability to an outside audience increases young people’s use of scientific language and norms, breaks down the isolation of the classroom and can encourage extra revision and organization of understanding. Presenting to an outside audience helps to position youth as community science experts, making a visible and valued contribution to their communities.

3- Engage with complex social-ecological systems: This practice involved young people observing, considering, and acting within the human and natural systems around them. YCCS work often asks young people to look closely, with new tools and new eyes, at nearby landscapes. This is an important way to help students understand that human activity makes up an integral part of ecological systems, with both positive and negative effects. This makes it easier to see the role that they, their neighbors, and their governments play in complex socio-ecological systems. These youth practices motivated movement across the three aspects of ESA, linking expertise building to specialized roles within environmental science work.

By exploring the activities in Modules 2-5, students have had the opportunity to build skill, developed their expertise and engaged with all three dimensions of NGSS while deepening and applying their ELA learnings. Each of the lessons focuses on building student engagement, capacity, and agency as they begin to see themselves as researchers, capable of knowledge production. Lessons can be selected and reordered at the teacher’s discretion, choosing the lessons that best suit the needs of their class based on their academic needs and interest.