At the risk of becoming an echo chamber to the other responses so far, I also plan on utilizing the outdoor spaces on campus to their fullest potential.  The plan as I have mentioned with our new course is for students to design, grow and plant their own beds on the school grounds.  We hope this is a chance for students to also pull from their creativity and artistic point of views when thinking about textures and colors.  Students will have to ask and answer their own questions about lighting, soil and water conditions.  From their the hopes is that future generations can build off of these plants, replacing what didn't work and collecting data on the species that utilize space based off the plants and flowers available.  An important piece is that not everything is going to work, that failure is a part of this, and with the correct data collection perhaps we can then learn from these mistakes together: not all of the seeds will germinate, not all the plants will take hold, perhaps the lighting conditions were wrong, etc.

I too agree that getting students outside and actually seeing the world around them is of great importance.  I plan on incorporating times to not only hold classes outdoors, but to set aside specific times to explore our campus and incorporate an 'I Wonder' board so that students have time to observe and pose questions.  It will be important for students to feel supported in their questioning and that it is not a matter of being given an answer but allowing the students to explore, question, collaborate, discuss, and investigate.  I am understanding the power of having a outlet that is led by students instead of having everything teacher driven.

I agree with Kristin comments about utilizing the outdoor/green space of my campus. I am beginning to understand how I can use Citizen Science as a basis  to help my students improve their skill in writing, questioning, and observation.   I like the " I Wonder" board.  I have used the KWL chart before as part of my lessons, but I have the 'owner' of it.  I can see  with just a few adjustments to what I am comfortably doing, my students will reap the benefits with skill development.

I think providing my students with an authentic learning experience like citizen science is exactly what is needed in my classroom. As I mentioned in another post, my school has a lot of outdoor/green space and while I have used it in previous years, I could be doing so much more with it. I can see us implementing a more structured citizen science project at the beginning of the year, and building upon that throughout the year with guided and/or open inquiry experiences. I also really like the approach of holding students accountable for their data and having a peer review system for that. It will add an additional sense of authenticity to the project.

I think that students need to have practice making observations and using scientific equipment, but they also need exploration in the natural world to begin to develop questions about birds, ants, water, plants, trees, and many more things.  Time is always an issue in teaching, but using citizen science is a great tool to take students outside of the boundaries of the school into the field.  I think it's important to give students practice using the scientific method, science equipment, and practice making observations.  Also, by connecting students with field scientists through  citizen science, they can see themselves participating in valuable science and contributing real world data.  Brainstorming questions and hypotheses in class can enable students to start thinking more about what they want to know and their own learning.

With my students, gifted 3-5th graders in a once a week pull-out setting, I think that the hands-on factor, positioning students as people who do science, and working to find solutions to self generated questions based on real world observation will be most beneficial to my students. Gifted kids are almost always motivated by "being in charge. " Both CS and inquiry allow students to feel important and know that their contributions are not just for a grade on the grade card. I am excited to use these programs and strategies with them.