ERIC Number: EJ1484633
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2154-8455
EISSN: EISSN-2154-8463
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Elementary Students Learning through Data Analysis and Sharing Findings: Design-Based Research for Community and Citizen Science in Schools
Alexandra I. Race1; Shulong Yan1; Caroline Spurgin1; Sol Henson2; Evan F. Portier1; Heidi L. Ballard1
International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, v15 n3 p377-397 2025
While citizen science and other participatory approaches to science are increasingly used in schools to promote student science learning, rarely are these students supported to collect, analyze, and share their data with meaningful outside audiences. In this study, we used a Design-Based Research approach to iteratively develop and examine an elementary school-focused community and citizen science (CCS) program that facilitated students' collecting, analyzing, and sharing forest health data with their forest manager community partners in an area of California, USA facing continual risk of catastrophic wildfires. Focusing on the classes of 3 participating teachers, we observed six classes of 3rd and 4th graders over two 1-year iterations, repeatedly observing their Forest Investigations and class visits facilitated by the watershed educators and interviewing 34 students each year at the end of the program. Our findings suggest that educators and CCS practitioners aiming to support students' development of science knowledge, practices, identity, and agency to tackle local environmental problems should design rich and repeated scaffolded experiences with data analysis and sharing their findings with science partners who can act on their findings.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Elementary School Science, Science Instruction, Teaching Methods, Data Analysis, Citizen Participation, Scientific Research, Science Process Skills, Information Dissemination, Data Collection, Scientific Literacy, Science Curriculum, Curriculum Development
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1908915
Author Affiliations: 1School of Education, University of California, Davis, CA, USA; 2Sierra Streams Institute, Nevada City, CA, USA

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