Background

Theoretical background and relevance to the learning sciences

Learning in today’s networked society is viewed as a process of shared meaning-making in which people co-create knowledge in technology-enhanced learning environments and communities (Tabak, Ben-Zvi, & Kali, 2019). In recent years several pedagogical approaches have been developed which seek to adopt promising trajectories of spontaneous learning within the networked society, and bring them to school, without "schoolifying" them—that is, without trivializing them to align with standardized academic requirements (for more on the notion of schoolification see Blikstein, 2013). School participation in citizen science is one way to do so.

Citizen Science is both a genre of research and a form of science communication and informal education, which connects scientists and nonscientists around projects that involve science. The past two decades, with their rapid development of information communication technologies, created fertile grounds for various types of citizen science endeavors to develop. This genre has become much more prominent in the past decade, as mobile technologies became commonplace and enable volunteers around the world to actively participate in different aspects of scientific research. The “science” in citizen science encompasses a vast array of disciplinary areas, and include various research projects initiated by the public, communities or scientists. This richness is expressed, for instance, in the Zooniverse website (2019), the world’s largest citizen science web-portal, accommodating more than one-hundred citizen-science projects in areas categorized into arts, biology, climate, history, language, literature, medicine, nature, physics, social science and space.

Due to the proliferation of citizen science projects in the past decade, a growing awareness of their potential to enhance school practice has developed, with promising findings with regard to student learning (Atias et al., in press; Ballard, Dixon, & Harris, 2017; Golumbic, Fishbain, Baram-Tsabari, 2019); teacher professional-growth (Kali, Sagy, Benichou, Atias, & Levin-Peled, 2019) and the participation of schools in leading educational change (Hod Sagy, Kali, & TCSS, 2018). For instance, with regard to student learning, the "Cities at Play: Community Drive" (Magnussen & Lindenhoff-Elming, 2017) engaged middle school students in redesigning their neighborhood by generating solutions to problems that they explored in their local area. These solutions were co-designed by the students with Copenhagen City Council urban planners. Findings from this project indicated that students became aware of the value of their own knowledge about their urban area as they realized connections with professional principles of urban planning during the project. With regard to teacher professional-growth Kali et al., (2019) illustrate a process by which practitioners of one school developed their readiness to incorporate contemporary approaches into their everyday teaching via a long-lasting research-practice-partnership that focused on co-designing learning materials for student participation in a marine ecology citizen science project. With regard to participation of schools in leading educational change, Hod et al., (2018) show how the Taking Citizen Science to School (TCSS) center involves practitioner teams in decision-making processes regarding the design, and in advancing the collective knowledge-building effort within the center.

A key idea within the learning sciences is that learning is part of everyday life, and not limited to the classroom. This notion has resulted in conceptualizations and designs that bridge where, when, how, why and with whom people learn (Dierking & Falk, 2016; NRC, 2015). We view school participation in citizen science as an especially fertile ground for developing such bridging processes. Following Kali, Sagy, Lavie-Alon, Dolev, & TCSS (forthcoming), we describe these processes using four main principles that serve as both analytical and design frameworks for school participation in citizen science:

• Bridge learning among students, teachers and scientists
• Bridge in-school and out-of-school learning
• Bridge school and community learning
• Bridge science and data literacies

Bridge learning among students, teachers and scientists

Citizen science brings together scientists and members of the general public (Hecker, et al.,, 2018; NAS, 2018; Sagy et al., 2019). These participants might otherwise have little interaction with each other, but can form a community of stakeholders who co-create knowledge toward a common goal. Research on student-teacher-scientist (STS) partnerships have shown positive learning outcomes (Hedley, Templin, Czajkowski, & Czerniak., 2013). One example of an STS program (Hedley et al., 2013) partnered teachers with geoscientists to learn to use geospatial technologies, and to engage students in collecting and sharing field data with scientists. The program was shown to improve students geospatial skills and understanding. At the same time, such STS partnerships present challenges for learning, because of the tension between collecting data that is both useful to the scientist, and useful for student learning. Often, scientists’ needs are prioritized, which can limit students’ participation to data collection. Without the chance to formulate research questions or to engage in data analysis, the benefits of such programs can be limited (Sadler, Burgin, McKinney, & Ponjuan et al., 2010).

Bridge in-school and out-of-school learning

Research shows that when properly designed, i.e., addresses the unique features of the environment, makes connections to students' life experiences, enables choice, encourages social interaction, and is well-mediated (Dillon et al., 2006; Tal, 2016), out-of-school inquiry can enhance meaningful learning in various aspects and domains, from fostering students’ self-confidence, to their development of deep knowledge (Bamberger & Tal, 2008). Many citizen science projects, including those that are incorporated into school programs, are within the domain of ecology and involve students and the broad public in ecological research that occurs in natural habitats (Ballard et al., 2017; Silvertown, 2009).

Bridge school and community learning

New cyber and physical spaces and the transitions between them have stimulated the question as to whether schools or society should serve as the starting point in designing learning environments (Cole & Packer, 2016). By moving away from seeing the ‘classroom-as-container’ to ‘future learning spaces’ (Eberle, Hod, & Fischer, 2019), innovations in the conception of the classroom suggests that students should share responsibility in advancing their knowledge as they collaborate with different communities (Hod, Bielaczyc, & Ben-Zvi, 2018; Ma, Matsuzawa, Chen, & Scardamalia, 2016). The Opal project, for example, involved scientists working within underserved communities on environmental topics relevant to the community (Silvertown, 2009).

Bridge science and data literacies

Recent trajectories in science education, suggest that learning should be practiced within the context of relevant and authentic activities (Sadler, Foulk, & Friedrichsen, 2017). Furthermore, research shows that scientific literacy should be coupled with data literacy and statistical reasoning (NRC, 2012). Reasoning with data is a vital competence in today’s world where data visualizations, open data repositories, and infographics are being produced widely for public use. Professional disciplines, from the sciences to the arts, are integrating computation, dynamic visualization, and big data into their everyday work (“Dealing with Data”, 2011). For example, Harris, Dixon, Bird & Ballard (2019), illustrate that factors such as framing of task and purpose and nature of engagement with community users play important roles in students’ development of expansive learning and agency.

Workshop goals, relevance to the conference theme, and expected outcomes

The school participation in citizen science workshop will bring together researchers whose work focuses on citizen science in schools, or addresses concepts relevant to advancing our understanding of the role of citizen science in schools. The format will offer plenty of opportunities for participants to learn from one another's experiences, including an interactive poster session, and small and whole group discussions through which to exchange findings, insights, and best practices. We will facilitate activities to identify common themes, design principles, and persistent questions about how to bring citizen science to schools, and what it can show us about building bridges between people and communities across formal and informal learning experiences.

This workshop is highly related to the conference theme of interdisciplinarity. To participate in citizen science requires encountering the diverse perspectives of various stakeholders. Moreover, citizen science often involves working with data that is societally relevant, often discovering patterns of injustice in their communities, and through collaboration, construct informed solutions to address those problems.

Insights developed during the workshop will serve as seeds for future work. We envision developing a special issue to be published in one of the leading journals in the field.

References

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