Citizen Science

This is a group project.

This project worth 200 points.

It worth 10% of your final grade.

At the end of the project, you will be able to:

explain the concepts for citizen science
design quantitative data collection methods
analyze quantitative data

Project assignments:

project introduction video (100 points)
project presentation (100 points)

Ordinary people with little to no prior experience or training
Assist professional scientists in real research
Gather data and/ or provide analysis of actual data

In virtual world:

Participants go to websites for data to analyze

In real world:

Participants record data in their local communities to share with scientists.

Explore some of the Citizen Science projects

Some resources to use to find a citizen science activity are Wikipedia: list of citizen science projects, Scientific American, and SciStarter.

Look up those websites and find two projects and be ready to share in groups:

What is it?
Why do it?
How to collect data?
How the data will be analyzed?
How can you connect to this project?/ Why you like it?

How technology is connected to (or connects) citizen scientists?

Break into pairs, and watch one of the next four videos.

Ask yourselves these questions:

In what ways can these projects be interesting? And interesting to what kind of people?
In what ways do such citizen scientists acquire knowledge? And contribute to knowledge acquisition?
When was the last time that you did something out of personal interest (alone)? Did you learn anything from it? (Please share at least one story to the class.)

Let’s hear from citizen scientists themselves on their experience with nature.

Young people, old people–it doesn’t matter!

Not just about nature. There’s something for bookworms too!

And not just things. Citizen Scientists can create an impact on society as well.

Design your Citizen Science Project!

Brainstorm a question to ask

Your group need to have a question for participants to answer, which requires data collection process. Make sure the question asks for detailed information.

If it’s for an observation – include location parameters, time parameters, etc. Be very specific. The question should be something for which anyone in our class can collect data.

Questions can be anything related to the UGA campus and its “inhabitants.” Such as:

How many types of cherry trees are on campus?
How many people cross the street in front of Aderhold without using the crosswalk within a 15 minute period?
How many types of birds can be seen in 30 minutes?
What types of shoes do people wear on South Campus?

Provide feedback to your peers - Is it a valid Citizen Science project?

When you’re giving feedback to your peers, evaluate if they have answers for the following questions:

What is the project?
Why do it?
How to collect data?
How the data will be analyzed?
How can this project benefit our community?

Polish your idea and record an introduction video for your project

You can find the link for your Flipgrid video here.

Introduce your citizen science project (it needs a clever name). The video should include all group members. Your video can’t exceed 3 minutes.
Your video should answer the following questions:
- What is your project?
- How will the participants collect data for the project? (Where, when, and how) You may want to model the process so your participants can understand better.
- Why is important to do this project?
- How will you use the data to benefit the campus/community?

Notice that your classmates will choose which project to participate base on your introduction video. Make it interesting and easy to understand!

The total point for this video is 100 points. Pay attention to your audio quality.

Data Collection

Create a Google Form for participants to enter the data they’ve collected. This form should be set up as “everyone with the link can edit”. Paste the form link in the Citizen Science Group Info form.
The Google Form should include your Citizen Science question and a short introduction about how to collect data for your project. [Be specific!]
The Google Form should have a column for participants to sign up for your project.

Sample Citizen Science Data Collection Form

Here is an example of data collection form.

Group 1_ The Aderhold Masquerade.pdf

Sign up for three projects

Watch all project introduction videos and sign up for at least 3 projects to collect data (your group project is not included).

Data analysis

We will not meet in class for this process. You will meet with your group to analyze the data and prepare for the group presentation.

Present your findings

Requirements for the presentation:

10 minutes presentation, including 2 minutes for Q&A (Time matters!!!)
Use Google Slides to create your presentation.
Content
- Introduction of the project.
- Why you’re passionate about this project?
- What data you’ve collected?
- How did you analyze the data?
- What’re the data analysis results?
- Conclusion

The total point of your presentation is 100 points. This project worth 10% of your final grade.

Be aware I will grade your presentation from a group level as well as an individual level.

Your performance will be graded with the rubric below.

Google Sites

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