Citizen Science for Beginners

This article emphasized the components of a successful citizen science program for students, which I appreciate. It also illustrated how integrated education programs can occur literally in... See More

This article emphasized the components of a successful citizen science program for students, which I appreciate. It also illustrated how integrated education programs can occur literally in a school or other facility’s back yard. Invasive species are a locally relevant topic to easily make citizen science projects. Whenever students realize that the work they’re doing is contributing to a project much bigger than themselves, it’s very exciting. Use this article as a baseline to get inspired about creating your own citizen science project for your students and ideas on how to do so.

Real Research for Teachers and Students

I liked this article because it outlined one teacher's experience with doing citizen science work with her students. In addition to her students gaining the experience of working on a real ... See More

I liked this article because it outlined one teacher's experience with doing citizen science work with her students. In addition to her students gaining the experience of working on a real research project, the teacher also got to participate and felt as if her science teaching improved because of this. The teacher did a nice job of outlining how she structured this experience and how she has expanded it over the years. This is a good example of how you can start small and then continue to expand as your knowledge and comfort level with the science grows. The author also included a list of other citizen science websites for teachers to look at.