As part of the Students Discover cohort, I learned to become a citizen scientist. What does one do as a citizen scientist? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “[c]itizen science is defined as scientific work undertaken by members of the general public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions.”
On our first day in the Biodiversity Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, we participated in a weekly update meeting, overseen by Dr. Roland Kays, the lab Director. Reports were made by each scientist and intern regarding the many different research efforts currently underway, most of which would be next to impossible to accomplish without the help of citizen scientists. Bird watchers, camera trappers, owners of GPS-wearing house cats, and more, provide these scientists with relevant information from across North Carolina, the United States of America, and other far off places around the world!
During our sojourn at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, we contributed to several different citizen science research projects. We learned to identify dragonflies and recorded our findings for researchers at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation. We set up and collected information from camera traps (eMammal’s primary focus) located at Carroll Middle School and Raven Rock State Park, and learned to identify mammals captured on the motion and heat triggered devices. We participated in a small mammal trapping expedition, logging information about white-footed mice and cotton rats. We searched through crushed rocks for sharks’ teeth to be measured and categorized by scientists. Most of all, we learned that, as citizen scientists, we can all contribute to the field of science just by being curious, asking questions, making observations and reporting our findings to trained scientists who can use our aggregated information to confirm (or reject) hypotheses about the world around us.
And so, we finally come around to how Students Discover in my classroom! Using my internship as a catalyst, I intend to INFUSE a sense of curiosity in my students, CREATE a safe environment in which asking questions is the norm, ESTABLISH the expectation that students make observations and conjectures about what they see and hear, and SUBSTANTIATE the importance of documenting their thinking so that others can benefit from their efforts. None of these are new to my teaching practice, but each will be integrated with a greater awareness and more focused intention in an effort to inspire my students to Learn to Love to Learn!