Like many others have stated, I want to model "position youth as people who do science".  I think kids don't realize that science is something that everybody can do - if you explore, make observations, and record data, you too can be a science.  I'm hoping with incorporating more citizen science projects, I can really get my students doing the science and shifting away from some of the cookie-cutter labs.

The practice I took interest in was "position youth as people who do science".  In my limited experience with CS projects, I think I have leaned too heavily into the notion that students are providing data to scientists to analyze.  After reading the article, it is clear that this takes the students out of the equation.  Reframing these activities so that the students are the ones using the data can be a powerful and motivating shift.  I hope to do better in this regard in the coming school year.

This article was fantastic to read. I had only ever been assigning citizen science projects to students for them to do on their own with very little support in the classroom. I think this is why I never saw students very motivated about the projects. Instead of the students reporting on the project as a whole experience, having them report and share the actual work they did would be a tremendous shift. We had previously had students reporting to a larger audience which was helpful. Lastly, although my personal preference would be to have students engage in ecological projects, it isn't always where their interests are.

For me, both , "Take ownership of quality data" and "Attend to the unexpected" are the two practices Iwhere would like to focus this year. By modeling quality data, showing examples of data and having students analyze these examples of data as to whether or not it is usable data and why; sets my students up to be reflective and have more agency and the background to be successful scientists. Also, by giving students time to practice the skills needed to collect quality data, a way of collaborating data for consistency. By being well planned, knowing exactly the student learning goals for the day, how I will measure student progress towards these goals, pre-teaching skills students will need to be successful - including prior skills, knowledge, social skills, using materials, describing roles; this will allow me to better be prepared to capitalize on the "unexpected moments." The idea of being a "co learner" with my students is the pivot science educators need to make to prepare 21st century learners.

I am in the process of Fall programming and this has given me lots to think about. We try and do all these things. I model wonder, inquiry well (I think) and we talk a lot about being scientists. I am less good at being a good scientist - I have not been trained as a scientist and I find it hard to be focused and patient enough to collect data for an extended period of time. I think it would be a good experience for me and the Junior Naturalists to pick a CS Project as thread through our meetings this fall.  Much of our focus is on our Natural Heritage Trail which is South Carolina based, we are on a university campus, so perhaps there might be a science project we can help with, connecting South Carolina to the global context would be very valuable but we specialize in the local.

Our programs seek to model all 3 of UC Davis' teaching practices.   1. Position youth as people who do science. -- I start our environmental education programs by saying, "Today, you are scientists". We talk about what it means to be a scientist and what jobs we need to do that day to show that we are scientists. 2. Attend to the unexpected. -- Any program where we head out into the woods is bound to have unexpected leaps. A deer may pop out, we may find jelly ear mushrooms on a log as we climb over, there could be salamanders hiding under a rock near the vernal pool, etc. I encourage learners to stop and look at whatever interests us (within reason for time restraints) and to question why it's there and what it does. We may also go out and find nothing! 3. Frame the work locally and globally. -- We promote native species since they are our local species and we want kids to have ties with our local environment. I'd like to work more on connecting globally through citizen science -- hence why I'm here!

1. Position youth as people who do science. Specifically with teenagers who's brains are as a cognitive stage of self focus, teens want to be believe they are making a difference due to their actions. We allow teens to engage curiosity from day one and we don't often offer answers for their questions, we offer guidance and more resources. We educate as if every teen is an 'explorer in the making' to make sure we drive their curiosity NOT stifle it. Teenagers want to feel satisfaction and empowerment through their actions, and this is what our citizen science project allows them to feel. 2. Frame the work globally and locally. Our teen program travels around the nation and the world focusing on just this! We also educate in a way that allows all teens to look as conservation from a local, regional, national, and global perspective. We focus a lot on humane education which allows our teens to gain and improve empathy for cultures around the world as we tackle tough conservation topics. 3. Attend to the unexpected. My team and I are experts at attending the unexpected! We are in a non-formal, informal education realm and we thrive on the unexpected. If something changes course due to a students passion or drive of curiosity we will change courses as often as we need to to fan the flame. Our teens are used to not being given the answers from us so that practice also takes the shock away from the unexpected, but that's the state we all focus on.

Of the three key educator practices that the UC Davis recommends for teachers to use to engage students in the scientific practices through citizen science the one that I am most likely to use as a model is 'framing the work globally and locally'. I am drawing from my experience when, ten years back to my responsibility as a teacher in Philippine Science High School - Main Campus, I fully realized how lucky the stakeholders are (especially students and teachers) that of the 17 acre lot 60% of that are aggregated green space with wildlife (trees, birds, invertebrates, etc.). Compare these resources that we have to other public high schools (even other science high schools) in the metropolitan area whose available open space if ever they have is but concreted. Basically what we have is a living outdoor laboratory.  There is truth in the statement that one cannot protect (or conserve) something that one does not know they have (until realizing it is lost or in the critical state of being lost). Imagine the value of being able to host at least 40 plus species of birds and still counting (resident and migratory). Even if not globally, if I can frame an endeavor that is linked to a citizen science project that is both nationally and locally meaningful then that would really be something to the learners.

Of the educator key practices, I think that "position youth as people who do science" is the most important concept for my classroom and students. Our student population is mostly students of color, and we have many students with low socioeconomic status as well as English language learners.  I want to reinforce the idea that anyone can and should do science, despite the prevalence of mostly male and mostly white scientists and engineers. Hopefully, in guiding my elementary students through the process of gathering and reporting data to help support scientific research, they will see themselves as active citizen scientists who can pursue science education in the upper grades, through college and career.

I think I model all three practices which are "sharing findings with outside audiences, youth taking ownership of data quality, and interacting with complex social ecological systems." When I take students out water quality monitoring they are responsible for the quality of the data, have to run the tests repeatedly to make sure they are at least precise in their answers, work as a group to make sure they aren't making large mistakes in the process to get good results and then go out and do the testing again a few months later and compare their results to their previous results. They are then invited to a large conference like gathering to share their data with local environmental professionals and students from other schools. I also frame every science issue as part of a bigger complex social ecological system and make sure that the students understand that everything is related.

Many students don’t appreciate how much science affects their everyday lives and everything they do.  Their world is full of quick-fixes and instant results and science doesn’t work that way.  I strive to position my students as people who do science and learn to appreciate the significant role that it plays in everything they do.  It is important for them to realize that it is essential to take the time to plan, be accurate, and consistent in their methods.  By participating in citizen science projects, they learn the real and purposeful uses for scientific investigation.

After watching the video and reading the article, I of course want to make sure to follow all the teacher practices, but I think the big thing for me is to frame the work globally and locally. I have noticed in the brief time I have been the librarian at my school that my learners are well-versed in things that affect the local community, but have little knowledge/understanding about how the same things can be happening on a larger scale. I believe that citizen-science projects can help us bridge that gap in their understanding of global issues.

I personally feel I exemplify all three UC Davis teaching practices in my educational programming. Right off the bat we encourage our learners to question the natural world around them. We allow them to embrace their passions and curiosities and develop research opportunities around the topics they are most interested in. We don't follow any structured curriculum or state standards, instead we let our learners guide our educational teachings, providing them with a platform to become their own expert. When we embrace these curiosities, we enforce our learner's passions to research and inspire them to want to learn more. They are already scientists just by asking questions and making simple observations, even if they don't realize it right away. When it comes to attending the unexpected, I feel this is a tool that every educator should develop in their toolbox. To be able to embrace teaching moments and adjust programming on the fly can help spark unexpected wonders. I feel another component though is to be able to still connect and redirect the "unexpected" back to the original topic, thus, coming back full circle reinforcing the idea that everything can be connected. It is also important to never shut down a learner's curiosity towards something. If a student gets distracted outside by a plant or animal, roll with it. See how you can connect it to your topic at hand instead of shutting that student down and trying to get their attention back on your subject. Acknowledging those wonders can be just as beneficial as sharing the information itself. And for the third practice of framing the work both globally and locally, we do this in every aspect of our programming. Our facility's entire mission, which is deeply intertwined with all of our educational programming, seeks to connect our learners to the natural world locally, regionally and globally. We challenge students to question issues half a world away, to conduct reasearch and even compose solutions of their own. We bring our participants to local natural spaces to conduct studies, make observations and share their findings with local agencies, scientists and the community.

All 3 would be great practices to incorporate. I would like to develop more independent reasoning in my students. Designing projects that allowed them to think globally and connect locally would be wonderful.   Allowing for the unexpected I  already try to do on a small scale.

I think I am most interested in Interacting with complex social and ecological systems.  To me, this speaks to social justice, multispecies justice and community involvement.  From STEM Teaching Tool #74. Community science has great potential to increase the diversity of public participation in science and to support local flourishing. For that to happen, projects must reflect the diversity of communities and their concerns without reinforcing existing inequities in science and society.

I plan to model how students could interact with complex ecological systems by having students investigate how varying independent variables effects dependent variables.  I plan to have them design experiments in which they can understand how a control is needed to establish a baseline.  Often, students have multiple independent variables which complicates understanding which change is really responsible for the response.  I plan on teaching students how changing one variable and keeping other variables constant is best in gathering reproducible data. Another important concept that I will instill in my students is that it is OK if your results do not support your hypothesis.  Students often feel that they did something wrong.  I have them explore variables that they did not account for and simply having them revisit their hypothesis and explore the unexpected.

I think "attend to the unexpected" is the one I'd like to focus on the most in the early childhood space, though the other 2 definitely have their place as well.  Positioning inquiry as an activity where we don't always know the answer, including the teachers, creates more space for a-ha moments and pivoting to explore new questions.  Often with young children adults can assume that they definitely know more than the child about a topic.  If we leave space for uncertainty and be willing to capitalize on a child's discovery we can create more excitement and encourage further study.  I also loved how they mentioned creating space for failure.  When we start children young in understanding that science exploration is about learning something more rather than getting something right, and that mistakes and failures help us learn more, we are setting them up for incredible success in many areas in their future.

I think it is so important to teach locally and connect globally. I teach middle school boys so it is important for them to be able to see some connection to their life to build a better understanding of what we are learning. I hope to continue to model this for my students to help them understand that what is happening in their lives and on a local level impacts the larger community and world. I want to continue to model this in the labs, readings, and activities that my students are engaged in.

While all 3 of these are clearly important, I frequently find myself teaching locally and connecting globally. Teenagers, as we all know, are very self-centered, so the more we can make the learning both personal and global, the more their awareness is raised. For example, as part of our learning about forests we study wildfire and the kids do projects on Colorado forest fires. Since a fire did burn into the city, the kids are pretty interested, but also, we do fire modelling with match stick forest fires in peg-board plots which the kids love. Later, we look at other countries and the impacts of forest fire around the world. In another case of local/global connection, we look at water use in our city. The fact that we pump water up and over mountains is something the kids don't know. They also don't know that lots of kids cannot go to school because they must go collect water for the family. In this case, we look at water saving techniques and the kids become a bit more willing to conserve water.

The three teaching practices UC Davis recommends are "sharing findings with outside audiences, youth taking ownership of data quality, and interacting with complex social ecological systems." The second one here, about students taking ownership of data quality, is something I wish to model and convey to my students. I think students become more intrinsically motivated when they do this, and thus, a better experience for the student (and the teacher).  As far as data quality goes, sometimes pairing the right students together for a project can improve that data quality. Some students would be motivated to try harder in such group work because they may feel more responsible for the project and not wan tot disappoint their peers.  Contributing in this way can make the experience more meaningful and create that sense of ownership.

There are two of the teaching practices I'd like to model during this next school year in our homeschool.  The first is the idea “positioning youth as people who do science.”  Up until now most of our science studies have been confirmation inquiry and structured inquiry and the idea of learning science.  As we focus more on guided inquiry and “doing” science, the emphasis on the fact that we can do science here at home can make our studies more relevant and meaningful. The second idea of “attending to the unexpected” is important to me and ties into the first idea because it allows for more freedom and true inquiry rather than just sticking to a curriculum/list of facts to learn. We tend to go down many rabbit trails in our study of history but not in science.  This idea could lead us to much more meaningful and student-led work in our science studies.

I would like to focus more on "attending to the unexpected".  I feel it is important to embrace the surprises that occur when conducting citizen science activities.  I think it also a good way to model the process of scientific inquiry through asking questions and promoting curiosity and understanding it's okay to not know everything.  Also, one of the best things about this practice is using these opportunities to develop interconnections within the scientific world.  I would like to do this more during local stream monitoring and then at A Day in the Life of the Hudson River.

One of my favorite science t-shirts says: "Some people dream of meeting their favorite scientist. I teach mine." I wear that shirt whenever possible to show my students that I think of them as scientists. I have also done the activity that Pam mentioned where students draw what they think a scientist is. Doing this before and after having students read and learn about real scientists is a very powerful activity. One takeaway from that activity is I see more students drawing themselves as the scientist instead of someone else. That's when I know it's making an impact on them. When students see that the work they're doing in citizen science can help scientists, they feel like their work is important. I also share with them a project I did in grad school where I used data from eBird and iNaturalist for my own work (study on lovebirds in Phoenix). I can give them a real, relevant example of how that data is used. So often, we have students who don't understand why they are learning a certain concept in school. When you can show them how their work impacts science both locally and globally, that can be the spark that gets them to understand the 'why'. I love showing students data on maps (eBird, CoCoRaHS, and iNaturalist are all great ways to do this). We can zoom in on our local data, but then we can also look at the bigger picture and do some comparing and contrasting of the data. The third teaching practice, 'attend to the unexpected', is what I think is the most challenging one to prepare for in teaching. It can be the most memorable and rewarding, too. Some of the best teachable moments I've had with my students involved seeing something unexpected. Usually, it leads us down a path of discovery where we all learn something. One of my best memories with this was when one of my 4th graders discovered a cicada shell on the fence in the schoolyard. I opened up my 'I Wonder' board to questions, and they came up with many that I couldn't answer. We took some time to do research to answer the questions, and this led to a mini lesson on cicadas! This year, I'm excited to have a full year in person with my 7th and 8th graders. I plan to build on what I've done in the past with citizen science and try to incorporate a little bit of each of these teaching practices along the way.

I try to instill in my students that they are scientists. A beginning of the year activity I have done (thank you BirdSleuth!) is to have the students draw a scientist. I usually get a lot of Bill Nye and men in lab coats blowing stuff up. When they draw their end of the year scientists, they draw themselves (or I hope they do!). Stream Discovery is a great way to do this because they are in the water, using scientific tools and exploring. We even get a hydrolab from the EPA (a very expensive piece of scientific equipment). I make sure to tell kids how much it costs ($70,000) and that it is something scientists really use. My 6th graders this year told me that their science up until 6th grade had been from a Weekly Reader type of packet. They were excited to "do" science. This year I am hoping to introduce them to biomes like the Amazon (I know a good teacher workshop through the MorphoNetwork if you are interested!), so that we can compare our location to theirs.