Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
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 2, 2020
Implementing a
Community-based SDGs Monitoring Approach in DR Congo
Monday, March 2, 2020
10:00 – 11:00 AM PST
1460 Drew Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616
WELCOME Michael Dobbins !
The Center for Community and Citizen
Science is excited to welcome Michael Dobbins as the new
postdoctoral scholar! Michael will be joining a project focused
on marine protected areas (MPAs) in California, analyzing citizen
science data collected by participants in the MPA Watch
Program.
New Publication: For Science and Self
Youth Interactions with Data in Citizen and Community Science
Faculty director Heidi Ballard and
postdoctoral scholar Erin Bird were recently published in the
Journal of the Learning Sciences, in collaboration with UC
Davis alumni Emily Harris and Colin Dixon.
For Science and Self: Youth Interactions with Data in Community
and Citizen Science details how youth interact with and
discuss their data by analyzing eight school- and community-based
project sites. In doing so, the authors were able to document
opportunities for agentive learning with data in youth-focused
community and citizen science (YCCS). Their results, “shed light
on when and how conditions for expansive learning and agency get
established.”
Collabinar: Data Quality and Citizen Science
February 18, 2020
Data Quality and Citizen Science: Critically analyzing data stories and gaps
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST
1460 Drew Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616
New paper: Young Volunteers & Online Participation in Zooniverse
Appearing in the most recent
issue of Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, “What
Do We Know About Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of
Participation in Zooniverse” examines how youth, mainly 16–19
years old, participate in online citizen science projects. The
co-authors include Heidi Ballard, the Center’s Faculty Director,
and other colleagues collaborating on the LEARN CitSci project, funded jointly by
the National Science Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.
NEW PAPER: SHIFTING K-5 SCIENCE INSTRUCTION WITH NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS CURRICULUM ADOPTION
In 2016, the State Board of Education set out to change the way students learn science by adopting the Science Framework for California Public Schools. The new framework is designed to help students deepen their knowledge in four disciplines rather than having shallow understandings on many topics. It also emphasizes what students do with their understanding of science is more important than what they know. This significant shift in the curriculum can revolutionize how students learn and practice science, but it is crucial to prepare K-5 teachers for this transition.
The Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education
Alice Waters Announces Aggie Square Collaboration with UC Davis School of Education
On Thursday, January 16th, UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May announced an exciting new partnership with Alice Waters — founder of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and The Edible Schoolyard Project. A farm-to-table leader, Waters has been vice president of Slow Food International for nearly two decades. Her new food institute, the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education, will open at UC Davis’ Aggie Square in Sacramento, bringing together experts from across disciplines such as education, health care, agriculture, policy and business to innovate solutions for healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems.
Citizen Science from the “Edge of the Lake”
by Michael P. Montgomery
To anyone familiar with the
research that goes on here, it will come as no surprise that the
University of California, Davis, has a wide circle of influence.
The Tahoe Environmental
Research Center (TERC), located more than 100 miles from
campus and just across the Nevada border, is a prime example.
For over 50 years, the TERC has performed groundbreaking research on many aspects of the Lake Tahoe Basin, from water quality to forest ecology. Increasingly, and with help from the Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCCS), this research is incorporating citizen science.
AGU fall meeting 2019: where to find us
We are excited for the AGU Fall Meeting 2019 in San Francisco next week, December 9th-13th. Host of the world’s largest Earth and space science meeting, the American Geophysical Union is also celebrating its Centennial this year! AGU has become an important venue for work on a broad range of environmental topics incorporating education, policy, citizen science, and social science perspectives and approaches.
Listen to a radio interview about “Our Forests”
In early November 2019, KVMR’s Educationally Speaking program invited Sol Henson, the Educational Co-Director at Sierra Streams Institute, and our own Erin Bird to discuss the Youth Community Action and Science in Our Forests (“Our Forests”) project, now getting underway in Nevada County. The Our Forests project will train and support participating 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers as they work with their students, local environmental scientists and community organizations to study local forests and fire risk.
Global Collabinar: Building Connections – Citizen Science & the Ocean
December 4, 2019
Building Connections:
Citizen Science and the Ocean
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
3:00 - 5:00 PM PST
CA Biodiversity Day
Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area
On September 7th, 2019, several
members of the CCS team, including Chris Jadallah, Mackenzie
Carter, Maryam Ghadiri, and Peggy Harte, participated in the
2019 California Biodiversity Day bioblitz. We joined at the
Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, located between Davis and West
Sacramento. Biodiversity can be thought of as all of the
different types of life on earth, from the largest mammals all
the way to the smallest bacteria. California is a biodiversity
hotspot, due to the wide range of habitats and climates across
the state. As part of the celebration of California’s
biodiversity, the California Natural Resources
Agency and the California Academy of
Sciences conducted 10 bioblitzes across the state.
Bioblitzes are events where members of the community,
naturalists, and scientists come together to record as many
species as possible in a given area during a specified time
frame.
The Yolo Basin was once an 80,000-acre wetland and home to a tremendous variety of species, many of which remain today. In the early 1910’s, the floodplain was converted into a bypass using a system of weirs aimed at preventing flooding in the Sacramento area. Human intervention dramatically changed the landscape, affecting wetland species and prompting ecological restoration projects. Today the Yolo Bypass Wildlife area encompasses 25 square miles of mixed-use land, including nearly six square miles of restored wetland and related habitat. For the bioblitz, participants explored the area, documenting species using cameras and cell phones.
Citizen Science from a Sailboat
by Michael P. Montgomery
Two and a half years ago, during winter quarter of my freshman year, I approached the professor of my Introduction to the Oceans class after lecture. “I like sailing,” I said. “Do oceanographic expeditions ever take place on sailboats rather than motorized ships? That would be something I would be interested in.” My professor’s answer was a gentle no; larger, engine-driven vessels are a must for the sorts of multidisciplinary cruises that define modern marine science, she said.
In hindsight, her answer makes perfect sense. Maybe it was stupid of me to ask. Nevertheless, I look back on that question now as a sign of burgeoning enthusiasm for the field that, a year later, I would declare as my major.
Congratulations to Peggy and DeAnn on a Successful Summit!
by Michael P. Montgomery
On October 1, the Center’s CCS Innovator Fellow, Peggy Harte, traveled
with DeAnn Tenhunfeld to Sacramento to present at a California
Expanded Learning Summit for after-school educators and
administrators. Their talk, “Engaging Students in STEM through
Citizen Science,” discussed citizen science’s growing role in
elementary classrooms, and was attended by nearly 50
participants.
Student Opportunities for 2019-2020
For undergraduates looking to gain experience in science and environmental education, and community and citizen science, we’re happy to offer a few ways to engage. Contact Ryan Meyer to learn more, and join our team!
Photo Essay: Rattlesnake Creek Dam Removal and Restoration
With support from the Open
Rivers Fund, a program run by the Resources Legacy Fund, our
Dams and Watershed Health team,
Heidi Ballard, Ryan Meyer, and Chris Jadallah traveled to
Missoula, Montana in July 2019 to observe and participate in
the environmental monitoring associated with the removal of
Rattlesnake Creek Dam. Through meetings and hands-on experience,
we got an up-close look at both the promise and the challenges of
monitoring collaborations focused on dam removal.
Rattlesnake Creek Dam Removal
Working with local partners in Missoula, Montana
Rattlesnake Creek Dam
Originally built to provide water for the City of Missoula in 1904, the Rattlesnake Creek Dam was first constructed as a wooden structure and later converted into a concrete one. After problems with Giardia contamination in the early 1980s, a private utility took the dam offline and the City of Missoula converted to groundwater as its primary source for drinking water.
