The past two decades have seen a rise in citizen science projects and tools available for formal and informal learning; however, research has indicated there is a dearth of professional development for educators regarding understanding, adapting, and applying these resources in their learning environments. To address this gap, we created the…

School-based citizen science offers a way for students and teachers to collaborate with scientists and take part in multiple facets of research such as data collection and analysis, and sometimes research initiation, co-design, and reporting of findings. However, most citizen science projects offered to schools are of the contributory type, often…

Citizen science, a field and practice that commonly involves 'non experts' engaging in scientific activities, is an avenue of science engagement that commonly results in increased scientific knowledge, literacy, and skills for the volunteers that participate. In recent years there have been increasing efforts to better understand the myriad…

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and are central to human, animal, environmental, and planetary health. They play a particularly important role in the food chain and the production of high-quality, safe, and health-promoting foods, especially fermented foods. This important role is not always apparent to members of the public. Here, we…

Citizen Science projects are continuously growing in popularity as they offer a unique possibility to conduct large-scale research projects as well as allow citizens to broaden their knowledge about the research topic or the process of scientific investigations. However, the benefits for participants vary, depending on the way and the amount of…

In citizen science (CS) projects, citizens who are not professional scientists participate in scientific research. Besides serving research purposes, CS projects provide participants opportunities for inquiry-based learning to promote their topic-specific knowledge and scientific reasoning skills. Previous research suggests that participants need…

Although participation in citizen science can improve cognitive and affective learning outcomes, many citizen science projects exhibit low retention rates. By gaining an understanding of forms of engagement, reasons for ongoing participation, and the impact of project design on participant motivation and engagement, we can help keep people…

A goal of the New Zealand Curriculum is to equip students with the skills needed to use science critically and responsibly as citizens. One method of achieving this is through the participation in citizen science. Measuring the learning outcomes of citizen science experiences therefore, is important to ensure that development of science learning…

Within citizen science projects, learning about natural resources can encourage environmentally friendly behaviour. More empirical understanding is needed on how citizen science projects facilitate learning outcomes to support sustainable resource management, such as agrobiodiversity. Here we present the learning outcomes of a citizen science…

This paper presents empirical evidence from research carried out in New Zealand by a research-practice partnership (RPP) that included school teachers, teacher professional learning providers, and researchers in science education, technology education, and information systems. The RPP worked together from 2018-2023 to investigate the affordances…

Skill-based outcomes play a prominent role in citizen science experiences as they are situated directly between the dual, intertwining goals of advancing science learning and science research. Regular and transparent assessment of volunteers' science inquiry skills can support these goals, but we lack a comprehensive understanding of how these…

Ensuring that learning is participatory and even further democratized seems particularly important at a time when people are kept apart because of a COVID-19 pandemic that thrives on proximity. Whilst learning is based on exchanges, it also benefits from the existence of a learning community, the access to which needs to be equal and taking…

Biology education worldwide at different levels involves learning to identify plants and animals in nature. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching and learning method for bird identification that combines active outdoor fieldwork with active online learning, testing the validity of our instrument. Altogether, 798…

Over the past few years, we have worked together in a citizen science project called "Diamonds on the Soles of our Feet" (see also Goldin et al. 2021, Goldin et al., 2023). In this project we engaged with 420 young learners in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. We came to see participating schools as collaborative ecosystems where…

Citizen science, an emerging research tool employed worldwide, can encourage nonprofessionals to engage in scientific exploration. Additionally, the research strategy presents great potential to serve as a learning platform for students, supporting diverse contributions to science on public lands. Citizen science also has potential to encourage…