ED11D-01 INVITED
Cultivating Citizen Scientists in the Undergraduate Science Classroom
Several studies indicate a strong correlation between the number of college science courses and science literacy. It is not surprising, then, that the majority of participants in citizen science projects are college graduates who enrolled in at least two science courses. If one goal of citizen science projects is to increase civic science literacy, research suggests that most are preaching to the choir. Attracting a wider audience to citizen science is, therefore, a key challenge. One way to address this challenge is to attract students to enroll and succeed in science courses in college, even if they do not pursue a major in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In fact, only 20% of students receive a degree in STEM, yet virtually all undergraduates are required to take at least one science course. Introductory science courses are therefore critical to cultivating citizen scientists, as they include a large proportion of non- STEM majors. Indeed, a major thrust of recent undergraduate STEM educational reform has been the promotion of 'science for all'. The science for all concept goes beyond recruiting students into the STEM disciplines to promoting a level of scientific literacy necessary to make informed decisions. A clear implication of this inclusive attitude is the need to redesign introductory science courses to make them accessible and explicitly related to scientific literacy. This does not mean dumbing down courses; on the contrary, it means engaging students in real scientific investigations and incorporating explicit teaching about the process of science, thus fostering a lifelong appreciation for (and, hopefully, participation in) science. Unfortunately, many students enter college with minimal understanding of the process of science. And when they arrive in their introductory classes, science is presented to them as a system of facts to be memorized – comparable to memorizing a poem in a foreign language without understanding the vocabulary. New resources available through the Visionlearning project (http://www.visionlearning.com) provide the means to incorporate teaching about the process of science into disciplinary content, thus facilitating the reform the way that undergraduate students are taught science at the introductory level. This kind of educational reform may be a long-term approach to developing citizen scientists, but research from several different disciplines and perspectives suggests it is a critical step in building scientific literacy and lifelong participation in science. http://www.visionlearning.com
ED11D-02 INVITED
Dark Skies as a Universal Resource: Citizen Scientists Measuring Sky Brightness
The international star-hunting event known as GLOBE at Night returned March 8-21, 2007 in two flavors: the classic GLOBE at Night activity incorporating unaided-eye observations which debuted last year, and a new effort to obtain precise measurements of urban dark skies using digital sky-brightness meters. Both flavors of the program were designed to aid in heightening the awareness about the impact of artificial lighting on local environments, and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a natural resource for much of the world's population. To make possible the digital GLOBE at Night program, NSF funded 135 low-cost, digital sky-quality meter (manufactured by Unihedron). With these, citizen-scientists took direct measurements of the integrated sky brightness across a wide swath of night sky. Along with related materials developed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the meters were distributed to citizen-scientists in 21 U.S. states plus Washington DC, and in 5 other countries, including Chile, where NOAO has a major observatory. The citizen- scientists were selected from teachers, their students, astronomers at mountain-top observatories, International Dark-Sky Association members and staff from 19 small science centers. Most sites had a coordinator, who instructed local educators in the proper use of the meters and develop a plan to share them as widely as possible during the 2-week window. The local teams pooled their data for regional analysis and in some cases shared the results with their schools and local policymakers. Building upon the worldwide participation sparked by the first GLOBE at Night campaign in March 2006, the observations this year approached 8500 (from 60 countries), 85% higher than the number from last year. The success of GLOBE at Night 2007 is a major step toward the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, when one goal is to make the digital data collection into a worldwide activity. In this presentation, we will outline the set-up for the digital part of the program, the outcome and the plans for the future. GLOBE at Night has been a collaboration between NOAO, the GLOBE program, the IDA, CADIAS and Windows to the Universe. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The digital GLOBE at Night program described was supported by a grant to NOAO by the NSF. http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/
ED11D-03 INVITED
The Measure your World / Mide tu Mundo Project
Over 22 centuries ago Erathostenes devised a method to determine the Earth radius. Measure your World / Mide tu Mundo is a joint venture lead by Windows to the Universe/Ventanas al Universo in the United States of America, EducaRed in Chile and RedEscolar in Mexico seeking to partner teams of students, teachers and parents from the three countries in a collaborative effort to determine the Earth circumference by sharing the results of their measurements, and exchanging cultural information. Data are collected from September 29 through October 7, 2007. A report of the whole experience will be presented. http://www.measureyourworld.org/
ED11D-04 INVITED
Starry Nights: The Great World Wide Star Count
Increased and robust understanding of our environment requires learning opportunities that take place outside of the conventional K-12 classroom and beyond the confines of the school day. There has been an increase in extracurricular activities that bring students into the "real world", sometimes spanning past the regular school year, and often times including other family and/or community members. Citizen science or public engagement activities are becoming available across many disciplines and are attracting the attention of people of all ages. The Great World Wide Star Count is an international citizen science event encouraging everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online. This inaugural Windows After Dark event is designed to raise awareness about light pollution and the night sky as well as promote learning in astronomy. The activities of Star Count benefit from the current excitement in citizen science, with 15 nights of observing in October. Utilizing the international networking capabilities of Windows to the Universe, Star Count is able to engage people around the world. Data collection and online reporting is designed to be simple and user-friendly for citizen- scientists of all ages. The collected data is available online in a variety of formats for use by students, teachers and scientists worldwide to assess how the quality of the night sky varies around the world. This session will share our results and demonstrate how students and scientists worldwide can explore and analyze the results of this exciting campaign. We will discuss how the project team planned and executed the project in such a way that non-astronomers were able to make valid and useful contributions. We will also discuss lessons learned and best practices based on this inaugural campaign.