Speaking at DC Science Café on May 5

On May 5, I’ll be speaking at the DC Science Café on “the power of citizen science”, appearing on a panel with author Sharman Apt Russell and Aurorasaurus project director Liz MacDonald. It’s an exciting opportunity to talk about my research with the public! The challenge, of course, is that my usual audiences are 1) other academics, 2) grad students, and 3) public sector staff with substantial background in science. In other words, not the general public! There’s so much I could say about citizen science that it’s hard to know where to start. Further, it sort of sounds like slides aren’t the usual choice–and I can’t really recall the last time I did a talk without slides. So this is an interesting challenge, especially given that it’s the end of the semester and I’ve got a lot of other big events on the calendar for that week! The event is 6:30-8:30 PM at Busboys & Poets at K and 5th (in DC). I’m told that audience members should arrive early to get a seat, since their capacity is 150. The DC Science Café is a free monthly event organized by the DC Science Writers Association. I’ve heard of these events before, as a form of public engagement in science communication, but I’ve never attended one—and I certainly didn’t expect to be on stage for my first science café experience. It should be fun; come join the...

Biocubes

Every student has measurable biodiversity underfoot, within walking distance. With the right tools, they could participate in research and monitoring projects that could use their contributed observations on a regional or national scale to answer questions about sustainability. The Biocube project broadens the scope of citizen science by promoting observation of a wider array of organisms, fostering an ecosystem view rather than a species-specific perspective, and providing technological infrastructure to increase its scientific and educational impact. This project aims to provide greater public access to STEM learning experiences while laying the groundwork for data exchange as a step on the way to increasing the scientific impact of citizen science data. Teachers interested in requesting a Biocube kit for classroom use can contact our Smithsonian partners at biocube@si.edu. The Biocubes project involves numerous partners and collaborators working to recruit and train science teachers to use biocubes in their classrooms, build the data infrastructure to alert subscribers to newly available data matching their interests and inform data creators about the use of the data they contribute, and understand the needs of stakeholders in this data sharing ecosystem. Our initial phase of research is exploring the role that the iNaturalist social networking platform plays as a third-party provider of community-based data validation services and data management infrastructure for smaller projects like Biocubes. We are interested in learning whether utilizing platforms like iNaturalist provide additional value for scientific research that justify the tradeoffs inherent in adapting scientific protocols and participation processes to use available tools. There is a clear need for such platforms, but the citizen science practitioner community does not yet have...

Climate Indicators and Data Provenance

How does a scientist know whether an available data set can support their work? This study examines how researchers from different disciplines and practical contexts (e.g., graduate students, faculty researchers, federal research scientists) use information about the sources and analysis of data, also known as provenance, when presented with indicators in an online system, addressing the research question: Can coupling climate-related indicators with data provenance support scientific innovation and science translation? This study draws on web credibility research as well as boundary object theory, which focuses on the role of artifacts (such as images) in translation and communication across the boundaries of social groups, as a theoretical lens to inform and direct our inquiry. In this pilot study, we are examining the way that such artifacts can support innovation and translation in the National Climate Indicator System (NCIS). Through a multi-stage research design, we hope to discover principles for optimizing the presentation of data for scientific advancements and translation. Packaging an integrated data product (indicators) with its provenance seems a valuable strategy for improving the ability of researchers to creatively consider the utility of data and information from other domains for use in their own work. This research is a collaboration with Dr. Melissa Kenney of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, supported by a seed grant from the UMD ADVANCE Program for Inclusive Excellence (NSF award HRD...

Citizen Science Evaluation & Planning

In collaboration with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), we are testing evaluation tools designed to establish contextually-appropriate means of evaluating scientific productivity. Due to the diversity of goals and practices, measuring science outcomes in citizen science projects requires a holistic approach, so we are developing evaluation and planning procedures suited to application across a variety of contexts. At SERC, we can work with a diverse range of citizen science projects to improve the robustness and generalizability of a science outcomes inventory and planning toolkit that will be useful to the broader citizen science community as well. Citizen science can be considered both a methodology and a phenomenon; in this study, we focus on its methodological characteristics through the contextualized evaluation and planning process. As a phenomenon, we focus on understanding these projects’ evolutionary patterns and the impact of key decisions on project development, addressing these research questions: What are the typical stages of project development and longitudinal patterns of project evolution in citizen science projects? What events or conditions influence project management decisions in citizen science projects? How does structured evaluation of project outputs support project evolution and decision making? The products of this research will include improved citizen science project management and evaluation processes. We also anticipate new insights into project dynamics and resource requirements that can be used to establish reasonable, evidence-based resource allocations and performance expectations for local-to-regional field-based citizen science projects, supporting more effective project management and improved...