Section 8.1

Learning Goals

• Students will explain the impact of citizen science.

• IOC-1.E.3: Students will define citizen science as scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices.

• IOC-1.E.4: Students will define crowdsourcing as the practice of obtaining input or information from a large number of people via the Internet.

• IOC-1.E.5: Human capabilities can be enhanced by collaboration via computing. 

Objectives and General Description

Science needs more eyes, ears and perspectives than any one scientist possesses.  Citizen science is a collaboration between formally trained, professional scientists and everyday people who are interested in helping.  Citizen science studies allow people, using their own computers and resources, to collect, analyze and/or report data.  Some studies involve millions of people; others may involve only a handful of people.  This section focuses on citizen science.  What is it?  How does it work?  What is the impact of citizen science on our world?  How do you find citizen science projects?  Who can participate?  Students will watch a short video and read information about citizen science & crowdsourcing.  The ARC teams will look for existing citizen science projects that relate to their topic/innovation and will report on their findings to the class.

Activities

Activity 8.1.1 (50 minutes)

1. Have students watch this video on Citizen Science.   The video is about 8 minutes long.

2. After watching, the students should be able to answer these questions.

3. Discuss answers.

4. Explain what crowdsourcing is and how it relates to citizen science.  Explain that crowdsourcing offers new models for collaboration, such as connecting businesses or social causes with funding.

5. Allow students to sit with their ARC team.  Each team should research and look for an existing citizen science project that is related, either directly or indirectly, to their innovation or topic.  They will be reporting on this study to the rest of the class.

6. Where to look for existing citizen science studies...

   • https://scistarter.com/

   • https://www.nationalgeographic.org/idea/citizen-science-projects/ 

   • https://www.citizenscience.gov/toolkit/case-study/# 

   • https://www.citizenscience.org/ 

   • https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience 

7. Use your professional judgement regarding whether students should sign up to participate in a study.  If the study requires that students sign up with personally identifiable information, please follow the guidelines of your district on outside resources.

8. Reflection question:  What is the impact of citizen science and crowdsourcing?  On scientific studies? On small businesses? On the general population?

Resources

• 8.1.1: Citizen Science Video (student resource)

• 8.1.1: Citizen Science Video Reflection (student resource)