pitterpatter Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 (edited) Someone posted a link to CitizenScience.gov in one of my other posts. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of DD potentially participating in some real-life science studies, even if only on the small scale. I've sifted through several of the options. Of course, some are more exciting than others. A few actually seem designed with students in mind. If you have participated in any citizen science projects, what has been your experience with them? Has anyone found enough worthwhile opportunities to actually weave them into your science studies Most options seem most suitable for biology studies. Then again, these might simply be the easiest ones for me to relate to. So far, these are the ones that have caught my eye. Please post any that you have found particularly worthy. Barkyard Bark Beetles (Catch bark beetles in your backyard and then mail them to scientists to study.)The Lost Ladybug (Catch and photograph rare 9-spotted ladybugs. The homepage is broken for some reason. Other pages work.)Project Monarch Health (Involves catching monarch butterflies and swabbing their abdomens with stickers.)Nature's Notebook (I'm not quite sure what this one is all about, but their education program seems well developed.)Whales as Individuals (I classified 4-5 pictures. I thought it might make a nice tie-in to whale/marine/ocean studies.) For history, there are several opportunities to transcribe old letters and records. This would definitely support the argument of why learning cursive is important. Edited June 23, 2019 by pitterpatter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom1720 Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 i"ll jump in. My DH is a co-coordinator for a citizen science project.. We decided that at least for high school -- not sure what age you're proposing this for -- involvement in these would count as volunteer hours, not for science class. The main reason for this decision is that for most of these projects you are only collecting data or answering simple yes/no questions, but not doing any actual scientific testing/analysis. High school needs more. Just one approach. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Right now, my DD is in middle school. Most of the citizen science projects that I've found accessible to us so far won't work for our upcoming science studies, as we're studying chemistry this year. I showed the Backyard Bark Beetles one to DD last night. She wants to do that soon for fun. I'm hoping to eventually stumble upon something that is designed for middle and/or high schoolers that is something more...something that would work as a lab or field study for high school science. There are so many projects to sift through that I am hoping that a science-loving homeschool parent somewhere has written up a great list divided by content area. My search has lead me back around to some "local" opportunities (classes/workshops/scout programs) offered by various St. Louis museums, gardens, etc. There are a couple of something more opportunities that DD might be eligible for at some point. I wish all of these museums, agencies, etc. would dump their youth programs into a central database. Sniffing them out is a lot of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 I meant to quote you in my other post. For some reason, I forget to do this all too often. I do think that some citizen science programs could count toward high school credit, if only in regard to training experience. We have one in our state that requires collecting lake water samples every three weeks and processing the samples following a protocol. I'm sure there are ways to expand some of the projects on the side to make them credit-worthy. I know Nature's Notebook has some lesson plans, etc. for using the data collected by the student and other citizen scientists on the site to analyze data, graph it, etc. 2 hours ago, mom1720 said: i"ll jump in. My DH is a co-coordinator for a citizen science project.. We decided that at least for high school -- not sure what age you're proposing this for -- involvement in these would count as volunteer hours, not for science class. The main reason for this decision is that for most of these projects you are only collecting data or answering simple yes/no questions, but not doing any actual scientific testing/analysis. High school needs more. Just one approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 3 hours ago, mom1720 said: i"ll jump in. My DH is a co-coordinator for a citizen science project.. We decided that at least for high school -- not sure what age you're proposing this for -- involvement in these would count as volunteer hours, not for science class. The main reason for this decision is that for most of these projects you are only collecting data or answering simple yes/no questions, but not doing any actual scientific testing/analysis. High school needs more. Just one approach. I agree. The actual work of science is generally not what you see scientists doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.