Moving the dial: integrating community priorities into citizen science
Diversity and inclusion have become central to STEM engagement, aligned with a vision of society where people have agency to leverage science to support their communities. Likewise with citizen science –traditional models remain strong but there are multiple noteworthy efforts to move towards more community-driven science. This session will provide an introduction to community science, use project descriptions to illustrate how its principles can be integrated into citizen science activities and reflect on the place of dialogue and relationships in these efforts. Small groups will explore these themes in relation to their own interests or situations (e.g. an existing citizen science project, those working with community groups and considering such a project, those planning or doing community science projects and those wanting to explore ideas related to community science further).
Outcomes: what will participants get from this session? Skills, knowledge, experience etc.
Participants will…
Gain knowledge about community science and the distinction - or relationship - between citizen science and community science
Reflect on how they might incorporate principles underpinning community science into their own work
Be inspired by community science and related efforts to support equity
Consider issues related to power dynamics, agency and voice in collaborations between science centres and communities
Facilitator
IOE (UCL's Faculty of Education & Society)
Session speakers
Association of Science and Technology Centers
To set the scene for the session, Christofer will describe ASTC’s Community Science initiative which is aimed at building capacity for and scaling the practice of community science. Christofer will review the attributes and outcomes that describe community science—from being equity focused to increasing science agency—and provide examples of how science engagement, research and learning organisations are increasingly leveraging these principles in their work.
Michael will talk about EU-funded initiatives that contribute to pushing citizen science closer to community science. Inclusion and equity are at the core of the ECS project, aimed at supporting the European citizen science community to grow, share and learn. The project actively involves libraries as venues where citizen science initiatives are often bottom-up, citizens-led and inclusive by design. Another example is the EC’s Mutual Learning Exercise on Citizen Science Initiatives.
Project Manager Open Science Hub Network
By bringing real cases from the Open Science Hub Network, Maria will discuss how community science is a powerful tool to engage schools and local stakeholders to use science and research to tackle local relevant challenges. Most particularly, we will reflect how the combination of open schooling and citizen science creates meaningful relations between schools and academia and equips students with research competences, while creating scientific knowledge that promotes community development.
Program Manager, Communications
American Geophysical Union - Thriving Earth Exchange
Washington DC
United States
Thriving Earth Exchange has facilitated over 250 community science projects including many that work with museums and science centres. Through case studies and data points, they will share community perspectives including why communities participate, the importance of centering community priorities, best practices for co-developing projects, and the positive impacts of community science especially for historically marginalised and under-represented communities.
