April 20th, 2016 | RESEARCH
We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (http://www.zooniverse.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. We don't directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former — that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.
Document
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Team Members
Karen Masters, Author, University of PortsmouthEun Young Oh, Author, University of Portsmouth
Joe Cox, Author, University of Portsmouth
Brooke Simmons, Author, University of California San Diego
Chris Lintott, Author, University of Oxford
Gary Graham, Author, Leeds University
Anita Greenhill, Author, University of Manchester
Kate Holmes, Author, University of Manchester
Citation
Identifier Type: ISSN
Identifier: 1824-2049
Publication: Journal of Science Communication
Volume: 15
Number: 3
Related URLs
Tags
Audience: General Public | Museum | ISE Professionals | Scientists
Discipline: Space science
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Citizen Science Programs | Media and Technology | Public Programs | Websites | Mobile Apps | Online Media