After reviewing the 3 practices that UC Davis recommends for educators to use to maximize youth learning with citizen science, I realized one stood out to me in particular. UC Davis states that it is important to "position youth as people who do science". Often students believe that scientists are only people who wear white lab coats and work with chemicals. I believe that as an educator, it is our job to allow for failure and expose students to the idea that they too can be scientists or are scientists. I hope to model this notion in my classroom by explaining the importance of citizen science to students and by allowing them to take control of their data collection. *Lesson From Project Aquatic

I wish to model UC Davis' teaching practice, "position youth as people who do science". What I love about project feederwatch and apps like Merlin and ebird, is ANYONE can feel like they are apart of science and scientists. My students are beyond engaged because they are directly playing a role with their observations they have seen. I want to create more opportunities like this for them, because I do not want them to think scientists are just older men in lab coats. When they think of a scientists, I want them to think of themselves.

It is very important for students to have meaningful roles. This helps them to feel like their work makes a difference and helps the scientists. This also helps students to evaluate the quality of their work so that scientists get accurate results. It is important to frame the work globally and locally. It is often hard for students to feel like they are making a difference globally, so you should start at the local level and work your way up. Show the connection between local and global issues. Lastly, you need to attend to the unexpected because when you are observing in nature, things are going to come up that interrupts what you had planned. It is important to facilitate discussions when that happens and explore student wonderings. I hope to do more with stressing to my students that they are little scientists collecting data to share with adult scientists. I think this will help empower them to collect quality data and question themselves to see if it is data a scientist would use.

As an AP Biology teacher with a "flipped" classroom approach many times in class we discuss the "messiness" of science. Much of what we do in science is attend to the unexpected. It is in these situations when students can really get involved by problem solving and "tweaking" particular procedures to attain clearer results that actually address their questions. I often find in situations when students had to rethink to problem solve they are excited to share their results and discoveries with others. This platform gives them the recognition they deserve and reaffirmation of their work.

Of the three practices, the one that I would most like to model in my teaching is sharing findings with outside audiences. I think this practice is important because it provides purpose and significance for the students complete the work. I would like to practice this by either having the students give a presentation of their findings to other staff members around the school or by having them write a letter of their findings to an institution or entity that it may affect or be relevant to.

As a non-formal educator I think that I have the opportunity to position youth as people who do science. Having students visit our facility and learn about science that is occurring in a location besides the classroom can have a great effect on their interest level in science. Ensuing that when students are working on citizen science projects that they understand the importance of their role and how they are playing a part in research.

Our social studies curriculum explores the world, introducing different regions of the world to our students.  We often weave our study of climate change into our exploration of these regions of the world, focusing on causes and effects of climate change.  While this provides our students with a global-perspective, it lacks the impact that a local exploration or investigation can generate. The practice of framing the work globally and locally is critical to both student engagement (local connection) and perspective (creating global citizens) and catalyzes student agency in their own community.  We are focused on finding opportunities for students to engage in local climate action projects which will be driven by citizen science activities that serve to build background knowledge and foster curiosity and passion.

By positioning students as people who do science, they become actively engaged in scientific processes such as gathering valid data. I think it is a great way for them to change their perspective of what a scientist is. They can begin to see themselves as citizen scientists and realize that they can contribute globally to scientific knowledge and research. By framing the work globally and locally, the projects become more meaningful to the students since they can feel like they are making a difference in the world by participating in citizen science projects. Attending to the unexpected is important because it allows the educator and the students to learn together about their specific projects. It is important for the students to understand that their own data is used to determine the results of the project. I would like to incorporate citizen science projects such as a bioblitz and monarch monitoring into my curriculum this year. I want my students to feel like they are active participants in the world of science.

First, modeling that WE are doing science is pretty fantastic. And helping students to see that this is how knowledge is gained, by experimentation, observation, etc. can be life changing.

Reflecting on the 3 teaching practices and how to model them in the classroom. Position youth as people with science:  Students will be in charge of their own projects.  Take ownership, make a difference in their environment. Attend to the unexpected: Have resources available for the students so they can inquire. Frame the work globally and locally: Using the Citizen Science Project students will be able to look at other local students' data and also globally.

I appreciate the emphasis of a child not being an assistant, but an actual scientist. I love how this can change the perspective of the learner and create meaning, responsibility, and significance to their role. To incorporate this practice, I plan to inform them from the beginning that they are not helpers or assistants, but scientists in my class. I will give the learner control and time to process this role and explain to them what it means to be a scientist. I plan to explore the significance of this role and also engage in discussion with the learners what they believe it means. I will also have to change my perspective of the learners act as a facilitator/helper while they are on this learning experience.

I teach 7th grade and having them understand that anyone can contribute to science is powerful for many of them. It can get them away from the misconception that scientist where lab coats and only do work in labs. The outdoors is a wonderful lab that students often times do not think about. Contributing that science to something larger than their classroom can hopefully make some connections to the bigger picture.

As mentioned in some of my other posts. My job is primarily just to get kids out into nature. Reading about nature in a text books is completely different from getting out there, not taking shower for a few days and getting dirty. Many students these days might have never had an opportunity to get outside away from the conveniences of the the front country. The ability to actually see the things that they read, puts it into whole new perspective. For those who have been to the Grand Canyon know exactly what I'm talking about. After leaving the back country most of my students leave with a whole new appreciation of ancient cultures, and of the wildlife who live out there for their whole lives.

As a learner and a teacher  I have always felt the only way to truly understand is for the learners to "do the work" which is the first practice UC Davis recommends which is to have the students do the science. This can be messy and slow moving but it truly puts the learner in position to understand the work and definitely prepares them to understand the work they are doing.  The second practice is to show the students this work can occur locally as well as globally.  Helping to maintain a local healthy stream impacts habitats and the ecosystem downstream leading to improved stream quality and quality invertebrates in our streams improving the food chain down the stream. And finally "attending the unexpected" this occurs often when students are down at the stream, or at the lake, because everything is so interconnected and the questions that occur while collecting data seems to be never ending.  I  truly enjoy this outdoor data collection week with my students because of the unknown questions and information that comes up with each class is completely unique.

It's important to incorporate all three of these educator practices when helping kids contribute to science in a meaningful way. In my work, I hope to empower kids with both the knowledge and tools that are accessible in their everyday lives. Apps like eBird, Seek/iNaturalist, and Feederwatch can connect kids to nature in any habitat. It is important to help kids learn how to collect quality data so that they can contribute meaningful information to the science community, and when given the time within a lesson, I do not shy away from the unexpected "rabbit trail," which may help students make stronger connections with the lesson or experiment.

I would like to start a project that gets local students connected to their own backyards. I would like to start a monarch larva monitoring program and really empower those kids to make a difference in their community. I would like to start a collaboration with the zoo I work at, and a local science teacher. I would like them to start doing research on how to protect monarch butterflies at the zoo. I am hoping to make this a yearly project so students can see real time changes in their efforts to give monarchs more habitat.

In the work that I do, I always try to make kids feel like scientists.  I may bring in experts to show them the best data collection methods so they feel like they really know what they are doing.  This way too, they are willing to take ownership of the data they collect.  Allowing them to see the data others have collected helps too--they see that their data is comparable.  Collecting data more than once to be sure the data can be repeatedly found to be the same or nearly the same helps too.  I always engage youth with outside people for presentations of what they have done.  They can do that throughout the project with their peers, students in other classes, etc. to help them improve their project boards, get more wonderings and new areas for research.  We bring in elected officials at the local, state and national level (we are located just outside of DC) and kids present to them.  We have a few examples of new state legislation put in place due to student findings.--then kids really see they made a difference.  Many of our projects are implemented at the school level so that kids see an impact there. A local non-profit NoVA Outside has put on a Student Environmental Action Showcase for 10 years now.  This is in partnership with George Mason University.  The event is on campus and college students participate as judges and volunteers.  This has encouraged many students to consider college as a next step.  The students are presented as content experts at this event.  This has been curtailed with COVID-19 but we hope to be back at some point.  We have done some virtual work the past two years.

The first practice mentioned in this article was about making the students feel like they are scientists, not just helpers. I think that this is important in citizen science because students can easily fall into the trap of just repeating the steps instead of thinking critically for themselves and learning the scientific process. One way to achieve this method is by introducing them to a citizen science outlet and as they are gathering information, encourage them to ask questions about some of their observations and do some research to help them answer them. The second practice is to frame the work locally and globally. I think of pollinators as a great topic for this. The research is important because of the global decline of pollinators and we can help collect data by looking at our own community gardens and planting some native plants. The students could participate in planting the gardens and observing which species come to pollinate the flowers, this is an example of framing science both globally and locally. The third practice is harder to prepare for but equally as important as the first two: attend to the unexpected. I think that if students find things that interest them or new curiosities then that is great! Questions always mean that the students are engaging and interested. Allowing them to seek answers on anything allows for more knowledge circulation. I wish to model all of these principles by allowing students to choose what interests them, tying those questions into global and local importance and always assisting them in  seeking new knowledge and answers to curiosities.

How I wish to model teaching is by using citizen science to increase interest in Florida's amazing flora and fauna for the kids as well as adults. I strongly agree that that involvement makes anyone participating have a sense of contribution.

1. Position youth as people who do science: I wish to model this through enabling students to not only submit their data to citizen science projects, but also to act on their data themselves, to work out what actions they can take, based on their research, to make improvements. 2. Frame the work globally and locally: as with the above, I would like to motivate students to take action on a local scale through citizen science projects to make improvements. 3. Attend to the unexpected: This is always a challenge as an educator, to allow the unexpected to happen, as it can feel like a loss of control of the learning, however, it's often when really exciting learning happens! So it's certainly an aim to model this more in my teachings.

The three educator practices that UC Davis recommends each help strengthen student learning. The first practice, "positioning youth as people who do science",  helps students see themselves as scientists. Ultimately, this is how I want students to view themselves in the classroom because by viewing themselves as scientists, they are actively doing the work of scientists. They are learning how to ask questions, collect data, analyze and share their results. The second practice, "frame the work globally & locally" helps to motivate students since they are working to solve an issue. The final practice, "attend to the unexpected", means that I need to shift from teacher to facilitator and let students drive the learning. It requires flexibility and patience. I would like to model the first practice, "positioning youth as people who do science".  I can do this best through modeling the science practices for students such as data collection, graphing and data analysis.  This can be done by working with the whole class, groups or individuals.

The students I taught were always positioned as individuals that did science. The first six weeks of the school year I would implement the scientific method to a student suggested topic. The students would learn the parts of the methodology and then conduct the experiment. The expectation for each course topic would then incorporate the scientific method so students had the opportunity to "do science" instead of "reading science" or "writing about science". Sometimes the experiment had clear flaws but those flaws provided an opportunity to further enhance learning. The students also had the opportunity to select a direction for their experiments without my influence. The students were the scientists so the power of choice was there but they were also expected to persevere any challenges they had like real scientists would do. Society would not be in the state it is today if we had citizens that were able to critical think and analyze the information presented to them to determine if it was reasonable or not.

I, like other contributors to this thread, love the idea of helping students think like or see themselves as scientists. I was never good at math, so I always thought growing up that I couldn't be a scientist, even though I really love science. If I was able to see myself as a scientist based on activities that didn't involve math, I think I would have been more motivated to pursue the field of science as more than a hobby. I now teach science at a school for students with learning differences. So, many of them struggle with either reading/writing and/or math. Helping my students understand that they too can be a scientist through different citizen science activities will definitely help build their confidence in a variety of ways and academic subjects.

I love the idea of "positioning youth as people who do science."  I think this is empowering to learners, and it really puts the students in the driver's seat.   THEY will be doing the work, and they are provided with an opportunity to learn, grow, fail, make mistakes, and succeed.  I also think it is crucial to "Frame the work globally and locally."  Seeing the big and the little picture will help them to make connections.  It is always valuable to provide students with a chance to invest in their own communities, and they can take what they learn and apply those skills to the larger world as a whole.