Implementing and evaluating a citizen-science program to support wildlife management: MI-MAST

Alexander K. Killion; Gary J. Roloff; Sarah Mayhew; Henry Campa; Scott Winterstein

doi:10.1002/wsb.903

Transference of Citizen Science Program Impacts: A Theory Grounded in Public Participation in Scientific Research

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13080339 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 339

Author(s):

Louise I. Lynch-O’Brien ◽

Wayne A. Babchuk ◽

Jenny M. Dauer ◽

Tiffany Heng-Moss ◽

Doug Golick

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Social Process ◽

Informal Science Education ◽

Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽

Science Program ◽

Program Leaders ◽

The Public ◽

The Social ◽

Added Benefit

Citizen science is known for increasing the geographic, spatial, and temporal scale from which scientists can gather data. It is championed for its potential to provide experiential learning opportunities to the public. Documentation of educational outcomes and benefits for citizen scientists continues to grow. This study proposes an added benefit of these collaborations: the transference of program impacts to individuals outside of the program. The experiences of fifteen citizen scientists in entomology citizen science programs were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. We propose the substantive-level theory of transference to describe the social process by which the educational and attitudinal impacts intended by program leaders for the program participants are filtered by citizen scientists and transferred to others. This process involves individual and external phases, each with associated actions. Transference occurred in participants who had maintained a long-term interest in nature, joined a citizen science program, shared science knowledge and experiences, acquired an expert role to others, and influenced change in others. Transference has implications for how citizen scientists are perceived by professional communities, understanding of the broader impacts and contributions of citizen science to wicked problems, program evaluation, and the design of these programs as informal science education opportunities.

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Evaluating citizen science outreach: A case-study with The Peregrine Fund’s American Kestrel Partnership

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0248948 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0248948

Author(s):

Sarah E. Schulwitz ◽

Greg C. Hill ◽

Vanessa Fry ◽

Christopher J. W. McClure

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Communication Strategies ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Research Priorities ◽

Future Research ◽

Discussion Boards ◽

Science Program ◽

Science Outreach ◽

American Kestrel

Citizen science programs can be powerful drivers of knowledge and scientific understanding and, in recent decades, they have become increasingly popular. Conducting successful research with the aid of citizen scientists often rests on the efficacy of a program’s outreach strategies. Program evaluation is increasingly recognized as a critical practice for citizen science practitioners to ensure that all efforts, including outreach, contribute to the overall goals of the program. The Peregrine Fund’s American Kestrel Partnership (AKP) is one such citizen science program that relies on outreach to engage participants in effective monitoring of a declining falcon species. Here, we examine whether various communication strategies were associated with desired outreach goals of the AKP. We demonstrate how social media, webcams, discussion boards, and newsletters were associated with perception of learning, agreement with our conservation messaging, and participation in our box monitoring program. Our results thus help us to improve our outreach methodology, suggest areas where other citizen science programs might improve their outreach efforts, and highlight future research priorities.

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Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15951 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Poulsen

Keyword(s):

Environmental Management ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Decision Makers ◽

The Arctic ◽

Polar Regions ◽

Science Program ◽

Cruise Ship ◽

Cruise Ships

Monitoring Svalbard&#8217;s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruisesMichael K. Poulsen1, Lisbeth Iversen2, Ted Cheeseman3, B&#248;rge Damsg&#229;rd4, Verena Meraldi5, Naja Elisabeth Mikkelsen6, Zdenka Sokol&#237;&#269;kov&#225;7, Kai S&#248;rensen8, Agnieszka Tatarek9, Penelope Wagner10, Stein Sandven2, and Finn Danielsen11NORDECO, 2NERSC, 3PCSC, 4UNIS, 5Hurtigruten, 6GEUS, 7University of Oslo, 8NIVA, 9IOPAN, 10MET NorwayWhy expedition cruise monitoring is important for Svalbard. The Arctic environment &#160;is changing fast, largely due to increasing temperatures and human activities. The continuous areas of wilderness and the cultural heritage sites in Svalbard need to be managed based on a solid understanding.The natural environment of Svalbard is rich compared to other polar regions. Historical remains are plentiful. The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act aims at regulating hunting, fishing, industrial activities, mining, commerce and tourism. Expedition cruises regularly reach otherwise rarely visited places.Steps taken to improve environmental monitoring. A workshop for enhancing the environmental monitoring efforts of expedition cruise ships was held in Longyearbyen in 2019, facilitated by the INTAROS project and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators &#160;(https://intaros.nersc.no/content/cruise-expedition-monitoring-workshop) with representatives of cruise operators, citizen science programs, local government and scientists. They agreed on a pilot assessment of monitoring programs during 2019.Results show the importance of cruise ship observations. The provisional findings of the pilot assessment suggest thatexpedition cruises go almost everywhere around Svalbard and gather significant and relevant data on the environment, contributing for example to an improved understanding of thestatus and distribution of wildlife. Observations are often documented with photographs. More than 150 persons contributed observations during 2019 to eBird and Happywhale. iNaturalist, not part of the pilot assessment, also received many contributions. The pilot assessment was unable to establish a useful citizen science program for testing monitoring of cultural remains.Conclusions relevant for monitoring and environmental management. Cruise ships collect environmental data that are valuable for the scientific community and for public decision-makers. The Governor of Svalbard isresponsible for environmental management in Svalbard. Data on the environment and on cultural remains from expedition cruises can be useful for the Governor&#8217;s office. Improved communication between citizen science programs and those responsible for environmental management decisions is likely to increase the quantity of relevant information that reaches public decision makers.Recommendations for improving the use of cruise ship observations and monitoring.<ul><li>1) All cruise expedition ships should be equipped with tablets containing the apps for the same small selection of citizen scienceprograms so that they can easily upload records.</li> <li>2) Evaluation of data that can be created and how such data can contribute to monitoring programs, to ensure that data is made readily available in a form that is useful for institutions responsible for planning and improving environmental management.</li> <li>3) Clear lines of communication between citizen science program participants, citizen science program organizers, the scientific community and decision makers should be further developed.</li> <li>4) Developing expedition cruise monitoring is of high priority in Svalbard, but is also highly relevant to other polar regions.</li> <li>5) Further work is necessary to fully understand the feasibility and potential of coordinated expedition cruise operator based environmental observing in the Arctic.</li> </ul>

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Sunspot observation by the cooperation of amateur astronomers and researchers in Japan in early 20th century as early citizen science program

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921321000776 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (S367) ◽

pp. 336-338

Author(s):

Harufumi Tamazawa

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Science Communication ◽

Solar Physics ◽

Practical Aspect ◽

Early 20Th Century ◽

Observation Data ◽

Solar Observation ◽

Science Program ◽

Social Mission ◽

Observation Network

AbstractThe development of astronomy has been developed by the cooperation of amateur astronomers and researchers. Sunspot observation is a good example of Extreme citizen science in early days. Issei YAMAMOTO (1889–1959), organized “Oriental Astronomical Association (OAA),” Yamamoto’s materials (now in Kwasan observatory) include solar observation data sent from many observers in Japan. From the viewpoint of today’s Citizen Science, collaborative observation of sunspot between researchers of solar physics and amateur astronomers in Japan has clearly a context of social mission rather than mere academic interest. From the viewpoint of science communication, we can see that Yamamoto’s call includes a social mission to promote astronomy in Japan, and that amateurs responded to Yamamoto’s call by participating in the observation network. It can be said that this collaboration have not only “cultural” aspect but also “civic”or “practical” aspect.

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Accuracy of long-term volunteer water monitoring data: A multiscale analysis from a statewide citizen science program

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0227540 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. e0227540

Author(s):

Kelly Hibbeler Albus ◽

Ruthanne Thompson ◽

Forrest Mitchell ◽

James Kennedy ◽

Alexandra G. Ponette-González

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Multiscale Analysis ◽

Water Monitoring ◽

Monitoring Data ◽

Science Program

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Testing a butterfly commonness hypothesis with data assembled by a citizen science program “Tokyo Butterfly Monitoring”

Ecological Research ◽

10.1111/1440-1703.12161 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (6) ◽

pp. 1087-1094

Author(s):

Izumi Washitani ◽

Mihoko Nagai ◽

Masaki Yasukawa ◽

Masaru Kitsuregawa

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Science Program ◽

Butterfly Monitoring

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Could a Harvest-Based Citizen Science Program Be an Effective Contribution to Fisheries Research?

Citizen Science Theory and Practice ◽

10.5334/cstp.301 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 12

Author(s):

Emily Wilmoth ◽

Josh Dumke ◽

Ryan Hueffmeier

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Science Program ◽

Effective Contribution

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Clouds around the World: How a Simple Citizen Science Data Challenge Became a Worldwide Success

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-19-0295.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 101 (7) ◽

pp. E1201-E1213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marilé Colón Robles ◽

Helen M. Amos ◽

J. Brant Dodson ◽

Jeffrey Bouwman ◽

Tina Rogerson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Drake Passage ◽

Saharan Dust ◽

Science Program ◽

Global Learning ◽

Science Data ◽

The Public ◽

The World ◽

Globe Program ◽

Dust Events

Abstract Citizen science is often recognized for its potential to directly engage the public in science, and is uniquely positioned to support and extend participants’ learning in science. In March 2018, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, NASA’s largest and longest-lasting citizen science program about Earth, organized a month-long event that asked people around the world to contribute daily cloud observations and photographs of the sky (15 March–15 April 2018). What was considered a simple engagement activity turned into an unprecedented worldwide event that garnered major public interest and media recognition, collecting over 55,000 observations from 99 different countries, in more than 15,000 locations, on every continent including Antarctica. The event was called the “Spring Cloud Challenge” and was created to 1) engage the general public in the scientific process and promote the use of the GLOBE Observer app, 2) collect ground-based visual observations of varying cloud types during boreal spring, and 3) increase the number and locations of ground-based visual cloud observations collocated with cloud-observing satellites. The event resulted in roughly 3 times more observations than during the historic and highly publicized 2017 North American total solar eclipse. The dataset also includes observations over the Drake Passage in Antarctica and reports from intense Saharan dust events. This article describes how the challenge was crafted, outreach to volunteer scientists around the world, details of the data collected, and impact of the data.

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