Citizen science in K–12 school‐based learning settings

Abstract

AbstractCitizen science, or the public participation in scientific research, is a mechanism for student engagement, and co‐creation of knowledge in the scientific research process. Through participation in citizen science initiatives within school‐based learning environments, students can gain field experience, direct project scope, and contribute to broader research objectives while simultaneously achieving learning outcomes and fostering connections to their local communities. To capture the breadth and scope of existing citizen science initiatives applied in Kindergarten–Grade 12 schools, a systematic mapping exercise was undertaken to evaluate common themes related to the type of activities students participated in (i.e., the collection, transcription, categorization, and analysis of data), along with their level of participation in the citizen science initiatives (i.e., crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, participatory science, and extreme citizen science). Of the 77 manuscripts extracted in the systematic map, nearly all (67/77) involved data collection, and a significant proportion of manuscripts captured a distributed intelligence level of participation (56/77).