Communication strategies define audience-specific behavioral goals, identify priority cognitive and affective communication objectives necessary to achieving those goals, and propose specific communication tactics meant to increase the likelihood of achieving those objectives. Unfortunately, it appears that few scientific organizations have…

Citizen science has the potential to promote an understanding of science and to represent science in school authentically. Still, its implementation into formal education encounters tensions between scientific and educational goals. Factors for success and hindrances of the implementation of citizen science projects in the classroom can be…

Environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives are argued to provide a promising vehicle for involving citizens in the investigation of various socio-environmental issues. However, environmental CS initiatives have often been criticized for merely focusing on the achievement of their scientific goals and outcomes (science-oriented), rather than on…

Participation in authentic research in the field and online through Community and Citizen Science (CCS) has shown to bring learning benefits to volunteers. In online CCS, available platforms present distinct features, ranging from scaffolding the process of data collection, to supporting data analysis and enabling volunteers to initiate their own…

Citizen science is a promising field for research in climate change. It has also been recognised with great potential in the field of climate change education, especially in the increase of scientific knowledge and science process skills. The study aims to examine the contributions of citizen science to learning outcomes regarding climate change…

Citizen science programs, which engage volunteers in varied aspeicts of scientific research projects, have been widely touted as a promising avenue for enhancing public scientific literacy and scientific civic engagement. The meanings volunteers make of citizen science experiences can influence the ways that scientific information is translated…

For over two decades now, the application of Citizen Science to Education has been evolving, and fundamental topics, such as the drivers of motivation to participate in Citizen Science projects, are still under discussion. Some recent developments, though, like the use of Artificial Intelligence to support data collection and validation, seem to…

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…

Programs to broaden female STEM participation, especially in pre-adolescent girls have had mixed success. We present results from an empirical study aimed at promoting positive science identity and nature connection in middle-school girls through engagement in citizen/participatory science activities at national parks. Our science identity…

This study analyzed the influence of rhetoric in the endorsement text on the willingness of the crowd to participate in citizen science projects. Four categories of endorsers were studied: professors, students, industrial researchers, and amateur researchers. Using 1243 endorsement texts from 543 citizen science projects as the corpus, the effects…

Being connected to nature can have many benefits for children, including improved well-being, and more positive attitudes towards the environment. Ecological recording, as part of a citizen science project, may offer new opportunities for children to learn about, and connect with, nature. In this study, we investigate outcomes of an ecological…

Engaging youth in citizen science projects has multiple benefits. Yet, numerous challenges, such as lack of alignment between project goal and youth interest, hinder youth wider engagement. In this paper, we suggest a model for engaging volunteers in facilitator roles, warranting positive outcomes for youth engagement in citizen science projects.…

In the United States, reforms put forth by Next Generation Science Standards have increased the demand for K-12 teacher professional development in science instruction. This study investigates a new professional development model, entitled Schoolyard SITES, that partners elementary teachers with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension…

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…

Recent public engagement with science (PES) scholarship has discussed the importance of designing and implementing extrinsic reward systems to recognize the scientists involved in PES work and potentially induce further engagement. This study examines the perceptions of the applicants, finalists, and awardees of a prestigious PES award. Although…