Citizen Science in Environmental Education: a critical exploration of the citizen scientist experience

Transcription

1 Citizen Science in Environmental Education: a critical exploration of the citizen scientist experience Dr Ria Dunkley, Sustainable Places Research Institute (PLACE), Cardiff University, IGEE 22nd October 2015 Karlsruhe, Germany

2 Overview Reflect upon early study findings: Introduce citizen science (CS) as a pedagogic approach within environmental education. Explore and trouble impacts of citizen science participation upon individuals. Present a place-based CS project aiming to explore citizens connections to local space.

3 Instances of Environmental Citizen Science Evolved in disciplines traditionally dependent upon volunteers in research processes, including, ornithology & atmospheric science. Examples projects include: Biodiversity surveys. Environmental degradation monitoring. Disease tracking. Invasive species monitoring. Phenology initiatives.

4 Environmental citizen science: Scientific validity Present day - transformational in environmental conservation research - affecting how the environment is managed - scale and scope. Contributes to studies in diverse ecological fields - from macro-ecology to landscape ecology, forest to urban ecology. Land managers, conservationists, policy makers and activists use results widely in practical settings (Bonney et al., 2009). UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (2014) regard CS as central to scientific progress, recognised in the Biosecurity Action Plan and the National Pollinator strategy. Austerity - environmental CS seen as a cost effective means of gathering data (POST, 2014: p.3).

5 Citizen Science popularity increasing. Many in environmental education (EE) see convergence of CS, science education and EE as a major opportunity to enhance sustainable thinking & behaviours (Wals, Brody, Dillon & Stevenson, 2014). To-date, little consideration of CS in participants lives (arguably key to ensuring sustainability aims -met). Citizen Science and Environmental Education

6 Study Rationale Understanding who collects the data and why, from an environmental education perspective at least, is a as crucial to understanding scientific findings as the data collected itself. Lack of focus on CS experience = little idea of who might/might not participate and for what reasons. Analysing CS practices enables appreciation of socially and culturally mediated experiences. Aim: To explore the potential of citizen science as a pedagogic approach within environmental education, uncovering motivations and experiences of citizen scientists.

7 Methods In-depth interviews with CS coordinators. practical projects insights, motivations and experiences of citizen scientists. CS Initiative Development to engage individuals with citizen science. Future plans to for participatory action research (Auto-netnography testing out Apps, etc.) and in-depth interviews with individual citizen scientists.

8 Phase One: EE-related literature - Citizen scientist key motives Often suggested gaining scientific literacy, a form of literacy, clearly valued by scientists, plays an important role. PostNote (2014: p.3) enables participants to: learn new skills, often with value for future employment. Desire to work with scientists, from whom voluntary participants can learn is a significant motivator for involvement. Wish to contribute to large-scale science projects. Aspiration to have pro-environmental impacts.

9 Far from the preserve of privileged 19 th C English Gentlemen for whom natural history was a hobby, 21 st C citizen -open to all amateur observers, irrespective of knowledge, background or social status. Scientists behind such programmes emerge from this narrative, common within conservation biology (Johnson et al., 2014), as concerned with: democratisation of science participation. increasing opportunities for science learning. expansion of scientific endeavour in both scale and scope. Collaborative projects

10 CS Experiences: Technologies as mediators of nature and the social 21 st -century technological advancements enable collaborative project expansion. Online projects - E-bird - ^ 5-million contributors per month (Bonney et al., 2014). Prestige - CS activities may enhance social capital- indirect motivator. Online platforms -track and compare progress - contests & games. Incentivised- certificates, publicity, media coverage, blogs & newsletters (Dickenson et al., 2012). Social interactions that promote friendship, cooperation and social acceptance -facilitated through internet forums (Bonney et al., 2009).

11 Ecopsychology insights the Topophilia Hypothesis Deep knowledge and love of place (Tuan, 1974). Innate to humans, but lost in modern societies (Sampson, 2012). Implies desire to preserve, protect or restore places. Can environmental CS offer means to become attentive to & bond with urban nature as our foraging forbearers bonded with savannahs, rainforests, tundra and deserts (Sampson 2012: p.39)? Drivers - desire to protect local ecosystems (ZSL), activism (UCL) or simply a desire to know their environment more deeply (Track a Tree).

12 Environmental CS organised in partnership with local organisations. E.g. The Opal project - operated by community scientists- regional museums. Our project - motivations and experiences of citizen scientistssmall scale, localised citizen science project within Bute Park, Cardiff. Urban area would people emerge as lovers of place? Phase Two: CS in an urban park Cardiff

13 Bute-y-full Bute Park Citizen Science Project

14 Twitter: Facebook: encetrail rksciencetrail

15 Troubling CS Expansion Citizen scientists give time freely to complete arguably mundane tasks - measuring and counting plant & animal species & collecting samples. Results not always fed-back to individuals. Public participation in scientific research -free labour? Interactions with nature lost through, e.g. smartphone environmental CS projects. Inequality of engagement opportunity depends on access to technology & project availability (Pergams & Zaradic, 2006).

16 Conclusions Popularity of Citizen science - set to continue to grow. Expanding opportunities to tackle ecological crises through environmental CS. Recognising benefits of environmental CS to participants - must extend beyond programme designers perspectives. Social and cultural factors that drive citizen scientists are often not clearly visible - necessary therefore to explore such drivers in-depth, Transdisciplinary approach -underlying perspectives influencing motivations. Nuanced stories of involvement, provide insight into multiple meanings in lives of individuals, taking into account diverse backgrounds and circumstances.

17 Diolch yn Fawr am I ch Amser Thank you for your dunkleyra@cardiff.ac.uk

18 References Bonney, R., Cooper, C. B., Dickinson, J., Kelling, S., Phillips, T., Rosenberg, K. V., & Shirk, J. (2009). Citizen science: a developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy. BioScience, 59(11), Bonney, R., Shirk, J. L., Phillips, T. B., Wiggins, A., Ballard, H. L., Miller-Rushing, A. J., & Parrish, J. K. (2014). Next steps for citizen science. Science, 343(6178), Dickinson, J. L., Shirk, J., Bonter, D., Bonney, R., Crain, R. L., Martin, J., & Purcell, K. (2012). The current state of citizen science as a tool for ecological research and public engagement. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 10(6), pp: Johnson, M., Hannah, C., Acton, L., Popovici, R., Karanth, K. & Weinthal, E. (2014) Network environmentalism: Citizen scientists as agents for environmental advocacy. Global Environmental Change, 29, pp: Pergams, O. R., & Zaradic, P. A. (2006). Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use, and oil prices. Journal of Environmental Management, 80(4), Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (2014). Environmental citizen science. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), Houses of Parliament, POSTNOTE 476, August Sampson, S. D. (2012). The topophilia hypothesis: Ecopsychology meets evolutionary psychology. In, Kahn, P.H. and Hasbach, P.H. Ecopsychology: Science, totems, and the technological species (pp.23-53). Cambridge (MA), MIT Press. Tuan, Y. F. (1974). Topophilia. Englewood Cliffs (NJ), Prentice-Hall. Wals, A. E., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Stevenson, R. B. (2014). Convergence between science and environmental education. Science, 344(6184),