CATCA 2023

Anyone can be a community scientist (aka citizen scientist), which is a non-professional scientist that contributes real scientific research data. Community science fosters scientific literacy by engaging students in meaningful science research that addresses real-world issues and leads to scientific advancement. Through direct participation in scientific inquiry and exploration, students develop critical mindsets about the nature of scientific discovery. Community science engages many students that might not otherwise care by having them contribute to meaningful research. Teachers will get an introduction to community science, access resources to find projects that fit their curricula and go through an exercise to help integrate these projects into their classroom. Teachers will also leave with a digital toolkit that will enable them to take the lessons learned and apply them to their learning objectives in their classroom. Integrating community science in your classrooms can also help girls and gender diverse students better envision themselves as scientists and can be a tool to help address barriers to their participation in STEM fields. We will talk a bit about that in our presentation.

Ideally, participants would bring their own laptops or smartphones/tablets but the session will be doable without them.

Teachers will walk away with a basic understanding of what community science is, an introduction to some projects that they can integrate into their classes (with a detailed handout to take home with them), and how community science can help to engage students (especially those who are underrepresented in STEM fields) in real science.