Lost Ladybug Project: Year Three Formative Evaluation

The Lost Ladybug Project, led by Cornell University's Department of Entomology and funded by the National Science Foundation, is a citizen science project that uses ladybugs as a focal species in order to involve children, families, adults, and other groups in field science experiences to illustrate scientific concepts, including invasive species, biodiversity, and conservation. In the project's third year, its activities included the refinement of online mechanisms for participation and submission of data, finalization of guides, curriculum materials, and tools for public audiences including youth groups, classrooms, individual children, and families. The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) conducted formative evaluation to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the updated implementation, and to test measures of impact achievement. This report presents the findings of evaluation of adult participants in the self-directed mode, which included individual adult participants and family/intergenerational groups. ILI used an online survey of all adult Year 3 participants, with a total of 185 participants completed the survey, an overall 38% response rate to the survey. The results provide insights into the motivations, participation, and learning experienced by participants in the Lost Ladybug Project. Results showed that the program continued to have a broad audience reach across geography, education, and community size. Results also showed that the majority of self-directed participants are adults participating on their own; unique needs for this audience should be considered in future program adjustments. Overall, participants enjoyed their experience, learned key science concepts about ladybug species and ecology, and were motivated to likely participate in future years. Overall, the website's format seems to be effective and working well, with periodic troubleshooting needed. A finding throughout the study was that participants were most motivated by being able to contribute to scientific research and/or conservation through this project. There was corresponding strong, positive attitudes about the relevance of their contribution to science and strong interest in learning about the scientific results from their efforts. These data suggested that there is strong value in the ongoing communication by science staff about the findings, research directions, and real value of participants' contribution to science. Content learning about ladybug species variation, patterns, and invasive species problems seemed to develop out of learning about the specific species located and identified by individuals.