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Citizen Science and Education

Citizen science is the public participating “in scientific research activities when citizens actively contribute to science either with their intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge or with their tools and resources” (European Commission, 2014).

Citizen science projects have the intention to contribute to research, to produce new research-based knowledge and for their activities to be carried out by participating citizens (e.g., students).

How is citizen science related to education and how can they benefit each other?

Citizen science can:​

  1. bring students closer to current, real-life scientific problems

  2. promote participatory learning (in-curricula or as after school activity)

  3. enhance deeper understanding and trust in science

  4. promote scientific skills, critical and systemic thinking and other important competencies needed for the new generation

  5. promotes awareness and active citizenship to tackle real-life sustainability problems

Useful resources:

1. European Commission (2014). Green Paper on Citizen Science for Europe. Towards a society of empowered citizens and enhanced research.

2.https://www.scivil.be/gids/citizen-science-de-klas 

3. https://eu-citizen.science/training_resources

4. Borgstrom, D. et al. (2024). Handbook of Youth Citizen Science Social Science. Working with young people and the local community for social change.

5. Gell, S. et al. (2023). How (Un)Healthy are Austrian school food environments? Evidence from focus groups and citizen science. Appetite, 188: 106636.

6. Monagham, J. et al. (2022). Citizen science approaches to crowdsourcing food environment data: A scoping review of the literature. Obesity Reviews, 24: e13618.

7. Short video about What is citizen science: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUQF_YfGcJI 

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