The National Audubon Society, the National Association of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, Earth Force, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are identifying strategies and supports that move citizen science volunteers up the ladder of engagement from contributory to collaborative to co-creative participants in scientific research. The Citizens, Science, and Conservation project is testing strategies for engaging senior citizens (ages 60+) and underserved youth (ages 16-18) residing in Illinois, North Carolina and California in conservation-focused citizen science projects. This inter-generational project is engaging 45 seniors and 45 youth from three communities located near important bird areas (IBAs) in bird conservation activities and studying how to immerse them together in authentic scientific research. The goals of the project are to (1) learn how to better recruit and sustain deeper relationships with seniors and youth, (2) facilitate the roles seniors and youth can play as collaborators in field research and conservation science, (3) study ways that seniors and young people, as well as scientists and non-scientists, might interact more effectively while in training and in the field, and (4) study the cognitive and affective impacts of such collaborations upon both volunteers and professionals. Evaluation data on implementation, impact, and scale-up are being collected on three comparison groups of citizen scientists (new, core, and model). Audubon plans to disseminate a plan for implementing senior-youth paired collaborative and co-created citizen science programs to 2,100+ IBA programs in 42 states, 50+ nature centers and its 480 local chapters.
Coastal Communities for Science: A Bering Sea Partnership is a 3-year program of collaboration among the WWF-US, four Alaska native rural communities and regional scientists investigating the ecology of the Bering Strait. Its primary purpose is to advance youth interaction with science and it proposes to achieve this by engaging young people from high school and beyond to conduct research with scientists. The project which involves training community youth on science and research methods, capacity building of informal educators in these rural communities to lead and encourage field-based programs, inclusion of community elders in the overall learning and communication of science concepts and the creation of a model of collaboration. The science content, an amalgam of community interest and researcher interest, is grounded in local environmental and economic issues. With WWF's support and electronic technology, this has the potential of being a model project that is broadly disseminated at local, regional and national levels.
This planning activity will produce a prototype film on Spanish horses and conduct 10 focus group discussions to determine: audience interest, background knowledge, what viewers would like to see in this documentary, language barriers, cultural barriers, and how the film could be structured to help the public and teachers interact with children. The focus groups will target the follow groups: (1) middle school teachers, (2) elementary school teachers, (3) families with young children, (4) Hispanic families, (5) American Indian families, (6) youth ages 13-19, (7) horse lovers and those involved in horse activities, (8) senior citizens and individuals with disabilities, (9) documentary, museum exhibit and website production professionals, and (10) media and museum marketing professionals. The effort is intended to guide development of a PBS documentary, an interactive website, a companion book, and a museum exhibit on the origins, evolution, migration and impact of Spanish horses. STEM content in mathematics, genetics, paleontology, chemistry, evolution, and animal behavior, integrated with history, will be incorporated into the scripts for this diverse array of media platforms. The project also presents an opportunity to present in a very interesting and real sense the scientific process used for discovery. In addition to producing the prototype film and conducting focus group discussions, this planning grant will help to: clarify the responsibilities of all of the participants, especially the international participants; clarify the contributions from each discipline and scientist; plan in detail ways to achieve the greatest understanding with the anticipated diverse audiences; select the best geographic region, graphics, media, and animation; and establish realistic budgets and elements for production and post-production. Collaborators include: New Mexican Horse Project, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Habitat Media, University of New Mexico and Institute for Social Research, Cambridge University, Texas A &M University, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Selinda Research Associates, and PBS.
Water Logging is a volunteer water quality monitoring program, that monitors water quality in the Huntington-Northport Bay Complex in Long Island, NY. The goals and objectives of the Water Logging Program are to: 1. Educate and involve the public in water quality assessment and protection. 2. Develop a sense of stewardship among the community in the Huntington-Northport Bay watershed. 3. Screen for water quality impairments and determine long-term water quality trends. 4. Document effects of water quality improvement programs. 5. Provide useful water quality data to interested parties and the public.
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Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County
Using a kind of dynamic film, Latour analyzes three recent moments in the history of science and technology, involving John Whittaker of the Pasteur Institute, Watson and Crick and Tom West of Data General. Text in Portuguese.