Predictors of students’ interest in a citizen science programme

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates upper secondary students’ situational interest in a collaborative citizen science programme that involves genetic monitoring of freshwater fauna by analysing environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from local pond water. The programme was attended by a sample that comprised 1879 students (M age = 18.15, SD = 1.94) from 105 classes. The results indicate that students were excited by the highly sophisticated laboratory procedure. However, the most important finding was that students’ own contributions in terms of collecting and analysing samples had only a small predictive effect on their interest. I hypothesise that this is because students participating in citizen science programmes as part of their science classes are governed by curricular requirements, and thus by extrinsic goals (i.e. ‘mandatory volunteerism’). Thus, they may not be convinced that they are actually contributing to research, but instead may feel that they are participating in a curricular learning design. Furthermore, such educational programmes generally offer a low level of ownership, as the student has little or no involvement in the personalising tasks based on individual interests. This raises the question of whether citizen science educational programmes actually support the internalisation of values and thus interest.