Drawing Lessons From Diverse Citizen Science Efforts

Transcription

1 Drawing Lessons From Diverse Citizen Science Efforts Linda Silka University of Maine Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

2 Today We Have Learned That This Approach. Is Rapidly Growing and in Problem Solving Stage Aims to Strengthen Scientific Outcomes and Advance Knowledge Works to Add Rigor to Participatory Data Collection Is Trying to Ensure Groups Participate in Ways that Enhance Use of Research Findings Is Trying to Make Sure Research Leads to Action Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

3 Questions Are Starting to Emerge, Including How are CS efforts being organized and carried out? What topics have been successfully studied through CS? What problems seem to lend themselves to a CS approach? What technologies are being adopted and which seem to be the most helpful? What makes some CS efforts more effective than others? What barriers stand in the way of effective CS and how are these barriers being overcome? Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

4 How are Citizen Science Efforts Being Organized and Carried Out?

5 Types of Citizen Science Define a question/issue Gather information Develop explanations Design data collection methods Collect samples Analyze samples Analyze data Interpret data/conclude Contributory Collaborative Co-Created Disseminate conclusions Discuss results/inquire further (Bonney et al. 2009)

6 Citizen Science Strategy Tool Type of Partnership Problem Identification Research Proposed Solutions Implementation University as Lead Partner University as Consulting Partner University as Facilitating Partner University as Full Partner Researchers Researchers Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Municipal Officials Researchers Municipal Officials Municipal Officials Municipal Officials Researchers Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

7 What Are We Finding Out About Topics and Problems That Are Being Studied Using Citizen Science?

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9 Cambodian Community Health 2010 Citizen Science in Massachusetts

10 Citizen Science in Massachusetts Worker Citizen Science

11 What Technologies are Being Developed, Adopted, and Used?

12 Citizen Science in New Orleans: Here's How A Group Of Activists Is Using Balloons To Keep Tabs On The Environment

13 Citizen Science In Peru: Reaching the Hard-to-Reach with Mobile Health Applications The WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health in the Work Environment Department at UMass Lowell is part of the international collaborative network carrying out activities in support of the World Health Organizations (WHO) s mandate for international health work and its program priorities, and with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

14 EPA and Citizen Science in New York You ve heard about Citizen Kane Citizen Soldier Citizen of the World. But how about Citizen Science? Citizen Science is all the rage. EPA scientists are looking for ways to provide citizen scientists or citizen scientist groups with the means to address environmental issues in their communities. EPA grants have been available to individuals, non-profit and community groups, and to others interested in receiving funding for water and air monitoring projects in New York City.

15 What Seems to Make Some Citizen Science Efforts More Effective Than Others?

16 Keeping People Involved: Whale Sharks with their own Facebook Pages Involving People from the Start: North Carolina African-American Farmers Environmental Health Studies Involving People in Solutions: Guatemala CS Project on Chagas Disease Making It A Game: Folding Genes Online Data Collection Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

17 The River's Calendar: Following the hatch for science Building On Existing Interests: The River's Calendar: Following the Hatch for Science

18 Building on Place-Based Approaches Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

19 Building on Ongoing Partnerships University of Maine joins forces with Maine tribal members and basketmakers to address invasive species: Made from native brown ash trees, Maine Indian baskets are functional art forms that have been passed down through generations of the region s tribal communities. But the future of the art is being threatened by an invasive beetle species the emerald ash borer that already has devastated the ash populations in states such as Michigan and Ohio, and is being found in trees in New York and in Quebec. Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

20 Paying Attention to Every Stage: The Research Cycle Model Capturing Issues That Emerge at Each Stage

21 Starting to Draw On Literatures to Strengthen Citizen Science: Boundary Spanning Literature Social Networking Literature Resilience Literature Management of the Commons Literature Natural-Human Coupled Systems Literature Communication Literatures Scale Up Literatures

22 Learning From Different Approaches to Democratizing Science Comparing and Contrasting Citizen Science and Community-Based Participatory Research Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

23 Next Steps: Learning From The Puzzles People Are Trying to Solve The Bus Metaphor Analysis The Loading Dock Problem Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

24 Resources We Might Want To Investigate Citizen Science Association (website: CitizenScienceAssociation.org) Community Campus Partnerships for Health (website: ccph.info) Cooperative Extensions websites (e.g. Kansas s Community Toolkit (ctb.ku.edu) Maine Sustainability and Water Conference

25 Contact Information Linda Silka maine.edu