Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
NARST 2026 Where to find us!
We’re thrilled to share that members of the Center for Community and Citizen Science team will be presenting at this year’s National Association for Research in Science Teaching’s Annual International Conference, taking place April 19–22, 2026, in Seattle, Washington.
Cultivating Resilience and Real Science in the Classroom
New Publication with Classroom Science
Check out this new publication about the Salmon Project here: https://classroomscience.org/articles/fyi/cultivating-resilience-and-real-science-classroom-frys-network
Field Trip to Rush Ranch
Exploring Estuaries, Science, and Language
Authors: Peggy Harte, Becca VanArnam, Kimberly Renae Evans, Carly Davis
Our Growing Team
Introducing the New Additions to the Science Inside Project
We are excited to have three new team-members joining us at the Center for Community and Citizen Science! All three are working on the Science Inside Project, facilitating and studying participatory environmental science activities in prison gardens in collaboration with Land Together.
The Spinning Salmon Program: Science in the Classroom
A new article by Becca Van Arnam, published by the Delta Stewardship Council
Every fall, thousands of tiny salmon eggs arrive in high school classrooms across Northern California. Students huddle around their tanks, watching closely as the fish hatch, swim, and grow. But this isn’t just about raising fish, it’s about contributing to real science.
ECL290: A Course On Community And Citizen Science
Spring 2026
This 2-unit course will involve weekly discussion and exploration of community and citizen science (CCS) approaches and applications in environmental topics. With an emphasis on practice, each session will focus on a different theme such as equity and justice, project design and implementation, participant and conservation benefits. Other topics will be identified and explored based on student interest, and students will also have an opportunity to develop ideas for CCS projects within their own research.
Meet Ella Fodor, Our New Bradshaw Scholar Intern
Ella is a junior in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, minoring in Education. She is deeply passionate about land-based teaching, conservation, and making science accessible. In addition to working with us at the center, she is also currently working at the Student Farm Ecological Garden as a lead student gardener, where she mentors student interns in sustainable horticulture practices.
Launching Year 5 of the Spinning Salmon Program
We’re thrilled to announce the
start of Year 5 of the Spinning Salmon Program! On December 10,
participating classrooms across the region received their
untreated fall run Chinook salmon eggs, marking the beginning of
another year of hands-on research, learning, and community
science.
Project Update: Celebrating a new publication and the power of student-scientist partnerships
students team up with scientists to investigate salmon vitamin deficiencies
Just a few weeks ago the Spinning Salmon team launched year 5 of this innovative and powerful program. This program has supported high school students from classrooms across Northern California, working with our team at UC Davis, NOAA and CDFW, in joining the scientific effort to understand a troubling trend in our state’s salmon populations. Read more about how these young researchers supported gathering needed data here!
Job Opening November 2025: Project Manager
[This position is now filled]
The Center for Community and Citizen Science seeks a highly organized and motivated project manager to join our team. Our ideal candidate is a compassionate, open-minded and a people-first collaborator, who can think and work across multiple domains of responsibility (including research, education programming, and administration). This position is listed as “half time variable,” and has the potential to grow to a full time role as appropriate to the fit and availability of grant resources.
Job Posting October 2025: Postdoctoral Scholar Opportunity
This is a full-time three-year position, contingent on funding availability, starting as soon as possible.
Researchers Turn Burned Forests into Lessons in Climate Resilience
Northern California elementary students are gaining the knowledge and confidence to become the next generation of environmental stewards. Through Our Forests, a program developed and studied by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science and Sierra Streams Institute and funded by the National Science Foundation, students joined forest managers in the Sierra Nevada foothills to measure tree growth, identify native plants, and observe how forests recover after wildfire. By learning how science works in real time, they’re developing a deeper understanding of ecosystems and the role people play in sustaining them—insights that are essential for informed participation in environmental advocacy.
Project Update: Statewide Study Taps 3,000 Students for Salmon Research
As part of the Spinning Salmon Program in collaboration with GEAR UP STEM RVP, more than 3,000 high schoolers’ data collection efforts on Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) in California salmon has led to researchers publishing the a final study pinpointing anchovy dominated diets as the cause of TDC. Read more here about the full impact of this program on K-12 STEM education, giving opportunities for all students to lead, educate, and engage with their communities.
Project Update: GEAR UP STEM RVP Collaboration Impact Report
We are happy to announce the release of the impact report on the GEAR UP project and how its has grown over the years, involving more students and providing more opportunities for them to learn and grow. Check it out here!
California’s Biodiversity Day and Latino Conservation Week 2025: Students Celebrate Nature During Biodiversity Day Event
Each year when I have the opportunity to celebrate California’s Biodiversity Day on a school campus, I am reminded of the tremendous power of curiosity. Spending time with future leaders (who also happen to be nine) reminds me of how pointing out leaves, bugs, and birds can open doors to scientific thinking, care for place, and community belonging.
Project Update: A Year of Listening and Learning about Wildfire in Tuolumne County
Wildfire touches just about every
corner of life in the Sierra Foothills. Whatever your profession,
wherever you and your family live, the risk of wildfire, and the
many institutions and processes that have emerged to deal with
it, are bound to play a role in daily life. These realities were
reinforced to our team over the last year, as we embarked on the
4-year, CALFIRE-funded Tuolumne Community-Based Fire Resilience
Project.
Prioritizing Locally Relevant Human Well-Being Indicators Linked to Marine Reserves
How can communities help to shape
the monitoring of human well-being as a relates to conservation?
Center Executive Director, Ryan Meyer, partnered with students at
the UC Davis Environmental Policy and Management program to
tackle this question in the specific case of marine reserves in
Oregon. Working with the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, the team hosted focus groups in five different
communities along the coast.
Publication: Widespread thiamine deficiency in California salmon linked to an anchovy-dominated marine prey base
Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency (TDC) in marine systems is a significant threat to marine life, especially California’s salmonids. This publication found that thiamine deficiency in California’s salmonids arises from an anchovy-dominated forage based diet and investigates methods to track and mitigate TDC. Studies on Chinook salmon eggs were used to model TDC in certain regions in Northern California. Read the full publication here.
Teaching Tanzanian Educators How to Engage Their Students in Science and English Language Instruction by Exploring Outdoor Spaces
On April 18, 2025, thirty passionate educators from across Tanzania (and beyond) gathered for an interactive workshop designed to transform the way science and English are taught in schools—by taking learning outside.
Heidi Ballard Presents in eeWORKS webinar: What We Have Learned and Why It Matters
How community and citizen science impacts environmental education
On June 18, 2025, director Heidi
Ballard gave a wonderful presentation on community science for
environmental education (EE) in the eeWORKS webinar “eeWORKS:
What We Have Learned and Why It Matters“. With over 200
people registered, Heidi dove into systematic review findings
about EE and its impact on K-12 education, youth development, and
much more.
Watch the webinar recording now here!
