Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
New Practitioner Resource: Supporting Volunteer-Based Monitoring of Human Activities in Watersheds
We are excited to announce the release of “A Guide to Volunteer-Based Monitoring of Human Activities in Watersheds,” a resource developed by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science in collaboration with the Resources Legacy Fund’s (RLF) Open Rivers Fund. This guide emerged from an ongoing project focused on the role that community and citizen science (CCS) can play in dam removal and watershed restoration, and it serves as a companion piece to the CCS manual.
NARST 2025 Preview
Wildfire Mitigation and Social-Ecological Systems Resilience in Maui, Hawaiʻi
In response to the August 2023 Lahaina fire, a research-practice partnership is reimagining how high school students can contribute to wildfire mitigation while learning both Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science. This work will be presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) conference in March 2025 through a roundtable discussion titled “Culturally-Relevant Field Ecology: Wildfire Mitigation and Social-Ecological Systems Resilience in Maui, Hawaiʻi.”
ECL290: A Course On Community And Citizen Science In Conservation
This course has been canceled for this year.
2025 Field Trip to the Nimbus Hatchery
Spinning Salmon Students Experience Science in Action at Nimbus Hatchery
Last week, Youth Education Program
Manager, Peggy Harte, was able to join a group of students
participating in the Spinning
Salmon program, taking their research questions and learnings
into the field with a visit to the Nimbus Fish
Hatchery.
Becca VanArnam Accepted for 2025 Delta Science Fellowship
Congratulations to Becca
VanArnam, 2024-2025 Citizen Science in Conservation (CCSiC)
Fellow and Ph.D. student in Science and Agricultural Education,
on being awarded a 2025
Delta Science Fellowship! This program, funded by
California Sea Grant and in collaboration with agency partners
such as the Delta Stewardship Council, assists researchers in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Brushstrokes for Birds
A Public Engagement Project
About Me
Greetings! I’m a fourth year PhD
candidate studying the ecological causes and consequences of
Common Tern aggression. Common Terns are migratory seabirds that
are globally distributed, though my work primarily takes place
during their summer breeding season in the Gulf of Maine.
Opportunity: Your Community and Citizen Science Road Map:
A participatory science workshop for researchers
The Center for Community and
Citizen Science invites UC Davis researchers to participate
in our community and citizen science (CCS) Roadmap workshop! This
free workshop will be held on Friday March 14 from 9:30 am to
1:30 pm at UC Davis School of Education, Room 174.
Sign up here!
Project Update: GEAR UP Collaboration Launches Data Collection with FieldScope!
We are excited to share a
significant milestone for the Spinning Salmon Project: the launch
of Year 4 of student-driven data collection in partnership with
the GEAR UP STEM Rural Valley Partnership! This collaboration is
energizing students with 21st-century tools, empowering them to
explore salmon ecology while supporting GEAR UP’s core goals:
New Resources for Community Science in Schools
Sierra Streams Institute and the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science are pleased to announce the launch of final products from the Our Forests project, all available on a comprehensive website for teachers, school administrators, education practitioners and the general public at large.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) Conference Recap
From November 5th-9th, members of the Center for Community & Citizen Science presented at the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference and Research Symposium (NAAEE) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Heidi Ballard hosted two presentations, one focused on her recently published literature review and another roundtable discussion about the center’s partnership with the Insight Garden Program. Youth Education Program Manager Peggy Harte and Ph.D.
California Association of Science Educators Conference Recap
Youth Education Program Manager, Peggy Harte, recently presented a short course on campus-based monitoring at the California Association of Science Educators’ (CASE) conference. Presenting alongside Chris Griesemer (Director of the Sacramento Area Science Project) the course highlighted ways educators can use their school campus to examine local phenomena and engage youth in nature monitoring programs through participatory science.
UC Davis Health Speaker Series
UC Davis Health Clinical and Transitional Science Center IAL Speaker Series: Engaging Adolescent and Young Adults (AYA) in Health Research
On November 11th, our Youth Education Program Manager, Peggy Harte, presented at the UC Davis Health Clinical and Translational Science Center IAL Speaker Series: Engaging Adolescent and Young Adults (AYA) in Health Research. This course is part of a three-part series on Inclusion Across the Lifespan (IAL) in Clinical Research. The purpose of the session was to broadly inform researchers and staff about the NIH’s Inclusion Across the Lifespan policy.
December 13th Webinar
Doing Science Together – Exploring Diverse Approaches to Participatory Research
Join the UC Davis Office of
Research on Friday, December 13 at 10:30am to learn
about how scientists in a vast array of disciplines are engaging
members of the public in community and citizen science. From
global projects to hyperlocal community-based projects, there are
many ways of working with people who do not self-identify as
professional scientists, but who can contribute meaningfully to
research.
MEET OUR 2024 CCSIC Fellows
We would like to congratulate and
welcome our 2024 Community and Citizen Science in
Conservation Fellows! Our fellows are passionate and dedicated in
community and citizen science, and we are excited to see how
their projects develop and grow. Learn more about the CCSiC
fellowship program here, and be sure to stay
updated with our fellows’ progress throughout the year.
Participatory Data Science Update
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science – these terms and technologies are proliferating wildly throughout our day-to-day lives, lately. And in many cases, these tools can harm people who are already at a disadvantage. What better time, then, for Community and Citizen Science to intervene, open up these black boxes, and put the tools in the hands of the people who would be most impacted by them?
Celebrating California’s 2024 Biodiversity Day
As part of California’s 30×30
initiative—a state-wide effort to conserve 30% of our land and
coastal waters by 2030—Biodiversity Day has become a weeklong
celebration where both professional and budding
naturalists from across the state come together to document
as much biodiversity as they can by contributing to community
science.
Internship Opportunity, 2024-2025 Academic Year
This position has been filled.
The UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science is hiring 1-2 student interns for the UC Davis fall quarter with the potential to extend through the 2024-2025 academic year. Apply on Handshake, Job #9266844.
Shifting Tides: Piloting the MPA Watch Intercept Survey in Southern California
Here’s one inescapable reality of community and citizen science: there are many things that you simply cannot learn until you’ve been on the ground with people, doing work side by side in the field. No matter how much you plan and prepare, no matter how many logistical and technical realities you try to anticipate, things will come up once you get out in the world and start testing out your ideas. Adjustments will be needed.
Conference: North American Association for Environmental Education
November 5-9, 2024
The 2024 North American Association for Environmental Education Annual Conference and Research Symposium will be held in person in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this November 5 through 9. The Center for Community and Citizen Science will represent our research and projects at both the research symposium and regular conference.
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: #iluvbugs! observing backyard biodiversity after dark
Providing a framework for citizen scientists to collect their own data, on their own time, through demonstration and gradual release of responsibility
Backyard biodiversity represents an opportunity for exposure to nature
Scan your eyes through your backyard
or a city garden and you’ll get a snapshot of a biological
community in time. At first glance, your eyes may alight on a
cluster of colorful flowers or a bumble bee busily moving from
bloom to bloom. With luck, you may see a bird or two snacking on
the unseen arthropods or tiny seeds ferried about by wind or
animal. Much of the biodiversity in your backyard is actively
hiding from you—or your vertebrate peers—through miraculous
camouflage.
