The main goal is to enable schools, in particular teachers, parents and pupils, to participate in high quality citizen science projects in both curricular and extracurricular contexts. Citizen Science (CS) has raised a lot of attention in the last years. Its main goal is to involve citizens in different types of science projects, in particular to 1) improve engagement and 2) to increase research capacities, e.g. by shared data collection. Many projects have incorporated citizen science approaches. Whereas citizen science works well for educational purposes (e.g. in inquiry-based science education), the acceptance of CS on a scientific level ranges from low to questionable. Even though the European Association for Citizen Science has clear guidelines and support mechanisms, many CS projects are not taken seriously. This is the main starting point for the FabCitizen project: We aim at providing tools to increase the quality of CS projects, in particular in schools. For this purpose, we will integrate FabLabs as the main educational environment as they can provide both, technological as well as methodological expertise. We base our project on clearly defined requirements, amongst them ● In schools, CS projects need to be embedded in the curriculum ● To ease the implementation, teachers need high quality (open) scenarios and learning materials ● CS projects need support in terms of methodological and technological expertise. In the project, we will achieve the following main results: ● A Citizen Science competency framework describing knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully engage in high quality CS projects incorporating the key skill of data handling (such analytics, security, ethics) ● A pedagogical concept incorporating aspects of inquiry and service learning ● A guide for FabLabs as the key infrastructure to educate and train schools and citizens. ● At least 200 Open learning scenarios to train teachers, pupils and parents in early secondary school ● A collection of Open Educational Resources supporting the approach ● A good practice guide for schools and FabLabs across Europe The project will provide guidance and concrete support to universities, FabLabs, schools and the surrounding communities to participate in successful, high quality CS projects. As part of our trials, we will initiate around 100 CS projects. In the long run, we create new methods and materials for broader engagement and quality improvement in CS.
Our main goal was to enable schools, in particular teachers, parents and pupils, to participate in high quality citizen science projects in both curricular and extracurricular contexts. We aim at involving citizens, in particular in the school context, in different types of science projects, in particular to 1) improve engagement and 2) to increase research capacities, e.g. by shared data collection. Even though the European Association for Citizen Science has clear guidelines and support mechanisms, many CS projects are not taken seriously. This is the main starting point for the FabCitizen project: We aim at providing tools to increase the quality of CS projects, in particular in schools. We can summarize our objectives as following: 1) Enabling schools to utilize Citizen Science to develop scientific thinking and data handling competencies, 2) Providing a conceptual base to incorporate CS in schools - therefore we aim at providing a comprehensive competency framework for CS (“what should students learn”) and a pedagogical approach (“how can students learn”) , 3) Developing high quality (open) scenarios and learning materials to ease the implementation for teachers, 4) Identifying and providing good practices of CS in schools
The project has been applied as we have seen 1) the need to improve Citizen Science and in particular data competencies for schools and 2) we see Citizen Science as a promising and motivating method for scientific thinking across subjects. n the proposal, we have argued that Citizen Science and its essential competency of data handling is becoming more and more important in business and private life. Its main goal is to involve citizens in different types of science projects, in particular to 1) improve engagement, 2) to increase research capacities, e.g. by shared data collection and 3) use as an educational tool, in particular in the STEM field. One focus area is the use as an educational tool regarding STEM education but also for social competencies (e.g. responsible citizenship). We saw therefore four main effects which can be achieved in particular in schools, addressing and tackling: 1) Developing competencies in STEM, 2) Developing competencies in data-related topics (data analysis, data interpretation, data ethics), 3) Increasing engagement in societal issues, 4) Increasing motivation and engagement. Based on these initial needs, we have developed the project outline and resulting outcomes.