Education Resources


Below are several resources produced through efforts of the CSA’s Education Working Group.

Citizen Science in Higher Education

CSA hosted a series of 5 webinars in 2020 to support educators using citizen science in higher education. These events were designed to help you as you think about creating online or face-to-face learning experiences for undergraduates and connect you to a community of others doing the same. Each event is hosted by university faculty from around the country with experience using citizen science in a variety of disciplines.

Find full event descriptions, links to recordings and slides here.

The Undergraduate Student Experiences with Citizen Science (USE CitSci) network is another place to find and discuss best practices, classroom tips, and more. This group of educators and citizen science leaders interested in fostering the use of citizen science in undergraduate education is open to all-join here to browse collections of educational and project-related resources, share resources and . CSA is on the advisory board of this NSF funded community of practice as are many members of the CSA Education Working Group.

 

Learning* through Citizen Science: An Aspirational Vision and Ten Questions to Prompt Reflection on Practice

Excerpts from a blog post by Kirn, S.L., Ford, M.E., Collay, R., Henderson, S., Jolly, E., Trautmann, N.M., Arndt, L., Lorek Strauss, A.

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Master Naturalist.

The following set of questions can inspire citizen science programs to consider the many ways they do and might serve, inspire, and support current and future participants.

  1. How have you articulated your program’s learning objectives and made them visible?
  2. How have you articulated your program’s science objectives and made them visible?
  3. How have you helped your participants to see where their contributions fit in the scientific research enterprise?
  4. … see all ten questions here.

Youth Learning and Citizen Science

Citizen Science Infographic in the shape of the Rutherford Model with description in the center

New resources are available to help educators and youth organizations understand and tap into citizen science. The first document in a series, Citizen Science: Activating STEM Learning Out Of School, shares how citizen science offers youth and educators unique opportunities to observe and explore the world through authentic research experiences.

See the full post, including video, here.

Resources on this page were last updated in 2020.