In case you missed it, the call for workshops is currently open – AND, the submission due date has been extended until August 17th!

Workshops were well-received in the 2017 conference and made up an important part of the conference’s programming.  Many workshops were fully booked in the 2017 conference and many attendees had favorable reviews of the workshops and remarked that they would have attended even more of them if they weren’t run in parallel.  In other words, the 2017 CSA conference had great workshops in the program because of the workshop organizers and participants. We would love for 2019 to offer equally good, if not better programming–and this starts with answering the call!

If you have an idea for a workshop or symposium, submit it by the August 17th deadline.  If you have the drive to assemble a workshop, but aren’t sure what that entails here are just a few examples from 2017:

Elevating the Value of Citizen Science Projects by Understanding and Communicating Data Quality / CSA Data and Metadata Working Group (pre-registration required – SOLD OUT in 2017)

This workshop addresses a fundamental issue in citizen science (CS), “How good are data from citizen science projects and can the data be trusted?” From the point of view of CS practitioners the question is “How can CS projects best communicate their efforts regarding data quality & management to different audiences including participants, data users, funders, scientists, policy- makers, and other projects?” Skeptics argue the scientists undergo years of training and mentoring to learn how to collect data carefully and accurately. Therefore it is not obvious that untrained citizens will be able to collect useful data. In our experience, however, most citizen science programs are aware of the need to attend to data quality. More…

Sparking Positive Youth Development with Citizen Science (pre-registration required – SOLD OUT in 2017)

Educational research increasingly finds that learning beyond school walls is essential to engage and develop STEM-literate and curious citizens. Organizations ranging from primary and secondary schools, museums and universities, and community-based organizations provide out-of- school time programming to supplement as well as complement learning in classroom and home environments. Educators and researchers incorporate citizen science into out-of-school time programs because of its unique opportunity to engage young people in authentic STEM investigations. Positive Youth Development is an important program design and evaluation tool when designing effective educational programs. It recognizes the traits innate in young people as assets and uses the Five C’s: competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring to engage youth within their communities. More…

What is Your Impact? Learn to Evaluate Your Citizen Science Project (pre-registration and additional fee: $15 – SOLD OUT in 2017)

This workshop is intended to provide attendees with a basic understanding of the evaluation process and will cover the following topics: What is evaluation and how is it different from research; what, when, and why to evaluate; planning your evaluation; describing your project using logic models and theory of change; creating an evaluation plan; best practices for implementing your evaluation; collecting data and sharing your results; and resources for further reading. Attendees will work individually and in small groups, and will leave with a preliminary plan for initiating an evaluation within their own programs. More…

Need more inspiration? Check out the programming from 2017.  Need help formatting your workshop idea into a proposal? Check out the workshop guidelines in the 2019 Workshop Call for Proposals. Ready to share your knowledge and help make #CitSci2019 the most impactful yet? Visit the submission site.

Posted on: July 16, 2018  |  Category: Blog, CSA Blog, News