Citizen science across ages, cultures, and learning environments in Alaska

May 1st, 2019 | RESEARCH

Building community with rural and underrepresented groups has been a challenge in the field of citizen science. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a team of scientists, educators, Extension professionals, and evaluators have joined efforts to take on this challenge across Alaska. The goals for Arctic Harvest-Public Participation in Scientific Research are to: 1) investigate how shifts in environmental conditions affect the fate of subsistence berries and timing of berry loss from plants in fall and winter across Alaska; and 2) improve the participation in and effectiveness of citizen science across diverse audiences, particularly at high latitudes where a high proportion of communities have populations underrepresented in STEM. We present the assets that collaboration across a land grant university brought to the table, and the Winterberry Citizen Science program design elements we have developed to engage our 1080+ volunteer berry citizen scientists ages three through elder across urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and formal and informal learning settings. Our interdisciplinary team developed and implemented a program that provides in-person or online support for berry monitoring and data collection, and accommodates different age levels and settings. We also developed and tested an innovative program model that weaves storytelling throughout the citizen science learning cycle, from berries stories from the larger community, to stories of the citizen science process, to stories developed from berry data being collected and applied to future scenarios in a changing climate. The variety of program modifications we created have been highly effective helping reach a variety of settings and age levels. In both informal and formal learning environments in our first two years of the program we have had 568 pre-K and elementary-aged (age 3-12), 424 secondary-aged (age 12-18) youth participants and 107 adults (ages 18+), with 44% of participants coming from groups underrepresented in STEM, and 100% of groups completing berry monitoring throughout the fall. These results highlight the importance of designing the citizen science program with cultural relevance, program delivery options, and relationships between participants and scientists, while remaining committed to making a substantial scientific contribution.

Document

Spellman-Arctic-Harvest-RCSPR19-2.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333118942_Citizen_science_across_ages_cultures_and_learning_environments

Team Members

Katie Spellman, Author, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Jasmine Shaw, Author, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Christine Villano, Author, CV Education
Christa Mulder, Author, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Elena Sparrow, Author, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Douglas Cost, Author, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Citation

Publication: Rural Connections
Volume: 13
Number: 1
Page(s): 25-28

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL)
Award Number: 1713156

Funding Source: NASA
Funding Program: NASA Science Activation
Award Number: NNX16AC52A

Related URLs

Public Participation in Scientific Research: Arctic Harvest

Tags

Access and Inclusion: Indigenous and Tribal Communities | Low Socioeconomic Status | Rural
Audience: Educators | Teachers | Elementary School Children (6-10) | Evaluators | Families | General Public | Learning Researchers | Middle School Children (11-13) | Museum | ISE Professionals | Scientists
Discipline: Climate | Ecology | forestry | agriculture | Education and learning science | Life science
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research | Research Products
Environment Type: Afterschool Programs | Citizen Science Programs | K-12 Programs