Abstract
Curricular integration in formal teaching of citizen science can bring to the classroom aspects of scientific literacy that encourage the involvement of citizens. In particular, these include non-epistemic aspects related to the sociology of science (which are often not transferred to the classroom). Furthermore, this practice raises awareness among students, and encourages them to become participants in the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article describes a proposal for the integration of a citizen science project into the secondary education curriculum that can be reproduced in any educational center. Eighty-three secondary school pupils (14–15 years old) took part in this research at a city-center school in Northern Spain. A questionnaire based on validated studies was created and used to analyze the changes in attitudes of pupils towards science and technology and their improvement in scientific literacy in terms of scientific processes and scientific situations. The results indicate a significant improvement in the attitudes towards science and technology among the participating learners, as well as a better understanding of scientific processes and situations. Likewise, the results reflect how the implementation of the citizen science project contributes to the SDGs.
Highlights
One of the common aims of education systems is to achieve scientific literacy among pupils [1,2]
Scientific literacy is understood to be a process that allows students to face relevant problems that require the recollection of the scientific knowledge they have learned [3], with the most important component being the knowledge and comprehension of the Nature of Science (NoS)
Some areas of scientific literacy, those regarding NoS, are not adequately implemented in the classroom. This is sometimes due to teachers not being qualified, not believing such areas to be relevant, or not knowing how to integrate them into the relevant science subjects [5,65] on the curriculum, even though comprehension of the NoS is a key skill that citizens must acquire as part of their scientific education [4,66]
Summary
One of the common aims of education systems is to achieve scientific literacy among pupils [1,2]. Scientific literacy is understood to be a process that allows students to face relevant problems that require the recollection of the scientific knowledge they have learned [3], with the most important component being the knowledge and comprehension of the Nature of Science (NoS). This is because the NoS is what citizens use to evaluate matters of science and technology [4].
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