Gregory

students are typically stumped and need their hands held when trying to figure out inquiry based activities. They are not used to this and where not introduced to it at a young age like citizen science programs advocate. I would usually ended meeting with students one by one and helping them with the process.

Ooof. Another question that I can't really answer at this moment because I don't work STEM field at the moment. I will write about a time that I did teach environmental education using citizen science in the past. Much like what we have been talking about are the things we used to do at this organization. Including teaching students to think like a scientist before we would do any sort of the citizen science projects. So on the first day I would bring students to and old deer carcass that had been killed and eaten by a mountain lion earlier that year on campus!!! Before we walk by it I would stop the students and then explain to them there has been a murder mystery, we had to figure out what was killed and what killed it! I would tell them that we will walk silently up to the carcass and when we get there form a circle around it and not say anything. At this point all they were to do was to spend some time making observations! It taught about all sorts of observations they would be making, and I would "just record the facts ma'am."  I told them about observations big and small, location, and surroundings. Then, I would have them go around one by one and tell me what sort of observations they saw and write it down on a white board. I would look for key observations and if a student didn't say it then I would write it down for them when it was "my turn" after this, then I would have students start making inferences! and ask them, "what do you think this is?" and then go around once again answering one by one. Usually there would be lots of repeats! And i loved it when a student came really close to make it more challenging. when it came to my turn, I would usually throw a really crazy one in there like it's and alligator! When this is said and done I tell them that we must eliminate all the incorrect inferences. But who wants to start first and defend their choice. At this point we would discuss why or why not it couldn't be what it was (peer review). I would often tell them that scientists instead of trying to prove that something is right, instead try to prove that it isn't wrong. eventually 95% of the time we eliminate the carcass down to two species: a deer and a baby elk. most of the time the students are very smart and will figure out that it was a deer. Sometimes the were stumped. So I would tell them them the truth! After this exercise I told them they were now certified citizen scientists! and could participate in the weeks activities.

Unfortunately it is very hot out where I live and in the middle of the city!! Yay Phoenix. But that doesn't mean I haven't done this in the past. In fact, in college we did a five senses mediation a lot for sense of place activities. You ask people to sit down and close their eyes and ask them to engage a different sense at different times. At this time of year one of the major senses is the smell of the monsoon rains! Which have just started, and a little early for this time of year! For the activity all I have is small yard with a bird feeder so must of the attention comes from that directly in front of me. Lots of birds! the other primary noise unfortunately comes from the main road in the front of the house.

The biggest thing that I want students to come away with after a lesson is really more questions then what they came in with, and really, just learning how to answer questions. This doesn't even have to be for a science class or lecture. This is important in all subjects. When I was teaching at the high school level, I found it that even juniors and seniors couldn't come up with simple questions or even think critically for an assignment. It's things like citizen science when started early can provide these students with better ability to look critically later in school and life.

I used to teach at an outdoor school in San Diego County. The two citizen science projects that at the time I was allowed to teach was Project Budburst and the Golden Spotted Bore Beetle survey. All I have to say is that with Project Budburst students will mostly not be interested. One of those many reasons is that for most of the time plants are not really doing anything, they are either dormant or have already bloomed/got their leaves. Students where only there for a very short period and so for the most part, did not get to observe anything meaningful. My suggestion then would be to only use this if you have students who will be around for a much longer part of the growing season like a traditional year long school. The Golden Spotted Bore Beetle Survey had similar issues. The first being that most of the trees had already been surveyed before I started working there, then, observations would need to be observed over years to notice anything that needed to be sent in. Now that I think about it, we should have kept an internal spreadsheet of all the trees and their locations and when the last time they were observed. So instead it became more of an instructional model of how they could do this in their own neighborhoods. So overall my suggestion for doing citizen science projects would be to make sure that they are appropriate for the length of time that you have your students. Also, make sure they will be interesting to the students, don't make them stare at dormant plants