Conveying the scientific method is a central aspect of the Discover Ants Program.
I first learned about Citizen Science when I was at North Carolina State University. I quickly realized that Citizen Science is a powerful tool for science communication and environmental literacy.
Citizen Science is a direct access point to real science. Instead of just learning about science in a theoretical way, Instead of just learning about science in a theoretical way, Citizen Science allows everyone to become a scientist and, additionally, participants are contributing to a real science project.
Therefore, I created the Ant Picnic Cititzen Science project together with a wonderful team of fellow scientists and teachers. The experiment is implemented as part of the Discover Ants program for schools and we’re also working with the collected data.
…is the public involvement in inquiry and discovery of new scientific knowledge. A citizen science project can involve one person or millions of people collaborating towards a common goal. Typically, a citizen science project is led by a scientist and citizen scientistsare involved in data collection, analysis, or formulating research questions. (definition adjusted from SciStarter.com)
With Discover Ants YOU become a Citizen Scientist.
As part of the Students Discoverproject, a large-scale collaboration between several American education facilities, teachers and scientists started working together to bring citizen science projects into the classroom.
This collaboration was a great success. In total, the Ant Picnic project was implemented by over 500 schools. A previous version of the program presented here has already been tested in six schools in North Carolina. The feedback has been very positive – teachers appreciated the collaboration, students enjoyed the content.
Discover Antsnow continues this effort and is starting to build a framework in order to bring citizen science projects into schools all over Austria.
More about citizen scienc ein Austria at citizen-science.at
It has helped me to see that really anyone can be a scientist – which is awesome.
I feel it has helped me be a more creative and engaging teacher. Students can be active and engaged in real science versus trying to connect through a textbook.
Citizen science is a powerful approach to teach science in the classroom.
Created by D.M. Sorger © 2022
