data collection. Other organizations and foundations also fund educator projects which align with curriculum stan- dards and hands-on learning: one might consider visiting the Teachers Count5 website to find funding sources for both the United States and Canada.
Let the Data Collection Begin! Citizen science provides a fantastic opportunity to engage
students in data collection with real-life scenarios, whether it be through tallying the count and species of birds seen in the schoolyard, the number of bumblebees seen in a ten- minute time span, or the number of squirrels found in a given area, creating a bar graph to represent this data, or through measuring the length, width, and weight of a caught reptile. Students can use this data to engage in graphing and data analysis, a mathematical concept applied from kinder- garten through twelfth grade in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.6 Citizen science provides an opportunity to teach children
Water quality testing
conditions, and using neon colored index cards makes them hard to miss. The timeline for data collection is another factor to take into
consideration when planning a citizen science project. Some projects, such as the Great Backyard Bird Count, Celebrate Urban Birds, and The Great Sunflower Project require just a few minutes a day for less than a week’s time. Other projects, such as collecting reptiles and recording data, take longer classroom periods and often need time to get established and attract the animals. Finally, projects involving plant growth can take months or more. As a result, it is important to con- sider when in the school year you choose to start your project. Finally, do not forget to consider funding sources for
your project. If you’re interested in monitoring birds, insects, or reptiles, for instance, Donors Choose4 is a fantas- tic starting place to request the supplies you need for proj- ects. Public K-12 teachers can register for a free account, where they describe their classroom, project, and items needed to complete the project. As a K-5 science specialist, I had a number of projects funded this way. They supplied my classroom with materials for citizen science such as garden- ing tools, dip nets, field microscopes, and even cameras for
more about their local environments, serving as an outlet to teach them how they can contribute to the protection of the animals and plants that live nearby. As stated by one of my students, “We get to help animals and scientists? That’s so great – and we’re going outside to do it, which makes it even better!” What more could you want?
Catherine Scott is an assistant professor of elementary math and science education at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.
Notes
1. Calabrese-Barton, A. (2012). Citizen(s’) science. A response to “the future of citizen science.” Democracy and Education, 20, 2.
2. Jenkins, L.L. (2011). Using citizen science beyond teaching science content: Making science relevant to students’ lives. Cultural Studies of Science Educa- tion, 6(2), 501-508.
3. Feldkamp, L. (2015). 10 popular citizen science projects. Retrieved 20 December 2015 from
http://blog.nature.org/science/2015/02/17/citizen-science- 10-most-popular-projects-best-nature-conservation/
4. Donors Choose. (2016).
DonorsChoose.org: Support a classroom. Build a future. Retrieved 20 January 2016 from
www.donorschoose.org.
5. Teachers Count. (2014). Retrieved 26 January 2016 from www.teacherscount. org/grants/.
6. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for Math- ematics. Washington, DC: Authors.
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