Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
Expanding community engagement through science
Originally posted in UC Davis Public Scholarship and Engagement
This post was originally posted here on January 20, 2021.
Heidi Ballard, School of Education Professor and Founder of the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science
Interdependence. That’s what fuels effective scientific discovery, according to Professor Heidi Ballard from the UC Davis School of Education.
An Overview of the City Nature Challenge
Alexandria Tillet Miller
What is the City Nature Challenge?
The City Nature Challenge is a collaborative international bioblitz that started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The objective for the challenge is to motivate people in their surrounding area to get outside and document wildlife and general biodiversity. In 2017, the City Nature Challenge went national, and one year later, became a world-wide event.
Invasive Tamarisk Removal: A youth-led project
Mireya Bejarano
This post was authored by Mireya Bejarano, an undergraduate student studying Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California, Davis. She has been working with the Center for Community and Citizen Science as a research assistant since 2020. She is interested in the positive impacts that citizen science and conservation can have on each other when combined. She plans to pursue a career in conservation post graduation. Her favorite bird native to California is the Loggerhead Shrike.
Special Issue on CCS in Cooperative Extension
We’re proud to announce a new special issue of California Agriculture exploring the many ways that community and citizen science (CCS) are playing a role in cooperative extension. Ryan Meyer, Sabrina Drill, and Chris Jadallah served as guest editors of this collection, which spans a wide range of topics while illustrating the many different ways that CCS is used by extension professionals to advance their work.
How to teach an experiential field course online
This post was developed by Laci Gerhart-Barley, Christopher Jadallah, Sarah Angulo, and Greg Ira, who have recently published a paper about their work adapting an experiential field course (with significant citizen science components) to an online setting during Covid-19. You can access the paper, published in Ecology and Evolution, here
Birds Near and Far – Students investigate local environmental phenomena on campus and at a local pond
Article by: Erin Bridges Bird, Peggy Harte, and Heidi L. Ballard (Originally Posted on NSTA)
Original Article on NSTA: https://www.nsta.org/science-and-children/science-and-children-septemberoctober-2020/birds-near-and-far
Science and Children—September/October 2020 (Volume 58, Issue 1)
USING CITIZEN SCIENCE TO SUPPORT SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING NEEDS DURING COVID-19 TO ENGAGE STUDENTS AND CAREGIVERS
Article by Peggy Harte M.ed. on Classroom Science
Link to the full article on Classroom Science: https://classroomscience.org/articles/fyi/using-citizen-science-support-social-and-emotional-learning-needs-during-covid-19-engage-students-and-caregivers
Using Environmental Literacy as the Through Line, All Standards All Students: A Focus on Equity and Access
Environmental Literacy, Environmental Principles & Concepts, Next Generation Science Standards, Incremental Infusion
Using Environmental Literacy as the Through Line, All Standards All Students: A Focus on Equity and Access
BY MARGARET (PEGGY) HARTE, MED|NOVEMBER 17, 2020
Environmental Literacy, Environmental Principles & Concepts, Next Generation Science Standards, Incremental Infusion
Resources for Citizen Science Project Planning
We are excited to share three resources use in developing or evolving citizen science projects. These documents were developed as part of our work with the Open Rivers Fund, a program of the Resources Legacy Fund, which is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. While their focus is on dam removal and watershed restoration, much of this material could be useful for a wide range of contexts and problem areas related to conservation and natural resource management.
Photo Essay: Community-Based Monitoring and the Matilija Dam
Removing the Matilija Dam will be no easy feat.
Standing at a height of roughly 168-feet, or about 15 stories
tall, this 73-year-old concrete structure blocks the flow of
Matilija Creek, a major tributary of the Ventura River in
Southern California.
Our Specific Commitments to Anti-Racism
July, 2020
Last month (June, 2020), the Center for Community and Citizen Science issued a statement committing to take action against racism in the work that we do. As promised in that statement, we have been working on more specific commitments, listed below, which will guide us in the months and years ahead. We intend for this touchstone document to evolve as we learn and grow, and hope that it may be useful to our community of collaborators and beyond.
Did Covid-19 make the “City Nature Challenge” less green?
For his capstone project in the Wild Davis course, taught by CCS Faculty Fellow Laci Gerhart, Nicholas Monty explored spatial shifts in City Nature Challenge observation patterns between 2019 and 2020, using remote sensing measurements of relative “greenness.” We’re happy to share his fascinating approach here. Thank you Nicholas!
Working Toward Racial Justice
June 11, 2020
We at the Center for Community and Citizen Science are horrified and saddened by the most recent iterations of anti-Blackness and systemic racism in our society, our communities, and our institutions. While the events of recent weeks have laid bare their consequences, these systems have always existed in the United States. The murders of George Floyd, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are only recent examples, among countless others, of Black people suffering under a centuries-old system of white supremacy.
Supporting Scientific Discovery at Home
With schools currently closed,
parents face the daunting task of engaging their children in
learning at home. To meet this challenge, our center’s Innovator
Fellow, Peggy Harte, created the “Supporting
Scientific Discovery at Home a Parent’s Guide” to assist
parents in encouraging children to think deeply to explore and
discover the world.
This Friday: 2020 City Nature Challenge!
“This year we want to celebrate life
where life is challenged.”
- Jaime González
City Nature Challenge & COVID-19
The global challenge… fought locally
2020’s City Nature Challenge has been modified to keep organizers and participants safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than the typical competition, this year’s CNC is focusing on collaboration and spending restorative time in nature. You can still document biodiversity safely, although it may require some extra creativity or staying in your home.
The 2020 City Nature Challenge
takes place in two parts —
- April 24 – 27: Taking pictures of wild plants and animals.
- April 28 – May 3: Identifying what was found.
Outside Wonder Lab
Engaging in citizen science at home
Schools may be closed, but the citizen science fun can continue! For example our CCS Innovator Fellow, Peggy Harte has initiated the Outside Wonder Lab Project to help families learn about their backyards and nearby open spaces while practicing responsible social distancing.
Join your county’s Outside Wonder
Lab Project (all listed
here) on iNaturalist to discover the creatures that have been
sharing your space. Take the first step by going out into your
yard, then start observing. Using iNaturalist you can
capture pictures of your observations, identify the species you
have discovered, and share your findings. Even if we are all
physically apart, this project provides an opportunity to learn
from each other while contributing to a global database that
scientists can use to better understand and protect
nature. In the past few days, our Yolo
County community has sighted Western Fence Lizards, Sierran
treefrogs, American Avocets, and over 2000 other species!
New Video: Gardens & Citizen Science Project in Woodland Elementary Schools
The Center for Community and Citizen Science is
happy to share this new video, produced by our partner Yolo
County Office of Education, describing our collective work on
citizen science in school gardens. The video introduces our
ongoing Gardens & Citizen Science Project, and profiles the work
teachers are doing to implement citizen science school gardens,
in Woodland, California! Check out the video here.
Global Collabinar: Community-based SDGs Monitoring in DR Congo
March 2nd, 10am
We are looking forward to our next Global CCS Collabinar! Please join us online or in-person for —
Implementing a
Community-based SDGs Monitoring Approach in DR Congo
Monday, March 2nd
from 10:00-11:00am PT
1460 Drew Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616
Please RSVP here to attend in-person or virtually via Zoom.
