Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
New Book: Citizen Science for Coastal and Marine Conservation
Co-edited by Dr. John Cigliano and
our Faculty Director, Heidi Ballard, this new volume provides a
broad range of case studies exploring the utility and
feasibility, as well as limitations, of using marine and coastal
citizen science for conservation to leverage these resources and
address these tensions.
New Paper: Investigating Soil Knowledge in Uganda
Center researchers collaborated with
colleagues on a
new paper that points to the importance of engaging directly
with existing knowledge when attempting to bring new knowledge
and practices into farming communities. Working in Uganda, the
researchers examined similarities and differences between
smallholder farmers’ knowledge about soil health and scientific
concepts. In cases of dissimilarity, they find that new concepts
are unlikely to be assimilated without concerted effort and they
recommend hands-on experimentation with novel practices as a
means of building confidence with improved soil management
practices. Our Faculty Director, Heidi Ballard, and former
student researcher, Emily Harris, collaborated with UC Davis
colleagues Lauren Pincus (Plant Sciences), and Kate Scow (Land,
Air and Water Resources) on this research.
Join us this weekend at CSTA!
If you’re attending the California
Science Teachers Association meeting in Sacramento this weekend,
we’d love to see you at our Saturday afternoon workshop, led by
our wonderful colleagues Erin Bird, and Peggy Harte:
Why a Center?
What can universities bring to citizen and community science? What can citizen and community science bring to universities?
We have been talking to
colleagues all over the world about this double-sided question.
As the field of citizen and community science continues its
astounding growth, we believe there will be a continual need for
reflection, research-based insights, and a space to nurture
exciting new ideas about how individuals and communities can make
participation in science a part of their lives. And how we can
make interaction with diverse publics a regular practice of
science.
Universities at their best are engines of creativity and discovery, pushing the limits of our understanding and capability. Citizen science and community science are providing exciting new tools and approaches in that vein. Low-tech or high-tech, global or local, we are seeing new ways to advance knowledge and address environmental problems through science that welcomes many forms of participation. From that perspective, it is easy to see how universities can contribute to, and benefit from, this field. We aim to play a role in both its intellectual and practical development, based on a foundation of useful research and innovative collaboration.
CCS Launches Newsletter
We have just put together the first issue of “Gatherings,” the occasional newsletter of the Center for Community and Citizen Science. Have a look here, and then subscribe!
Summer Farewells…
We said goodbye to a cracking good
crop of graduate students this summer. We will seriously
miss them, but are also excited to see what these aggies do in
the world!
Transforming the science on nature
Mark Schwartz is a faculty affiliate of the Center. This post, which explores integration of science and society through natural resource management, and gaps in scholarship that could help to advance this mission, appeared earlier this summer at Nature’s Confluence.
Ethos of Citizen Science
By Jen Metes
As someone who’s always maintained a
fondness for campy antics, not to mention built a strong personal
identity as an environmental educator, two of my favorite tag
lines are, ‘The more you look, the more you see!’ and
‘Change is the only constant!’ I’ve used these
phrases way too many times with students and throughout my life
in general; yet here I am, revisiting their meanings once
again. These simple themes help formulate my thinking about
the ethos of citizen science.
How Can Universities Support Citizen Science?
At the Citizen Science Association Conference in St. Paul, MN, we used the poster session as an opportunity to discuss the role of universities in this rapidly developing field. You can check out our poster, which outlines some of our ideas, and then have a look at #citisciuniversities, to see some of what we heard.
Where to find us at CSA
This week, the Citizen Science Association (CSA) convenes in St. Paul, Minnesota for its biennial conference, bringing together diverse and interdisciplinary groups of researchers, practitioners, community organizations, and participants from across the field. The Center for Community & Citizen Science (CCS) will be showcasing work from a number of our recent and ongoing projects. If you are attending the conference, we encourage you to check out what we’re sharing!
Sharing Community & Citizen Science with Local Educators
In February, we teamed up with Pepperwood Preserve and Sonoma County K-5th grade educators to run a workshop on how to facilitate community and citizen science in the classroom. Activities included observational sketching, a mini bioblitz, and sharing the YCCS Environmental Science Agency framework. Educators left eager and equip to try out new projects in creative ways with their students.
YCCS Team Produces First Research Brief
The YCCS team is proud to present it’s first research brief. YCCS (Youth-focused Citizen and Community Science) has been a focus for the center for the past few years, and the research brief is the product of a multi-year study on YCCS.
Evolving Ethics within Citizen Science
As citizen science continues to grow and evolve, questions posed by researchers across many areas of study have emerged alongside this dynamic, new field.
Here at UC Davis, explorations in community and citizen science are taking place among several groups on campus. Most recently, the Department of Science & Technology Studies hosted Professor Shun-Ling Chen from Academia Sinica in Taiwan, who gave a lecture on her work investigating questions of ethics and fairness for those who participate in crowdsourced citizen science projects.
Poster on Best Practices for Engaging Communities in Citizen Science
Graduate student Jen Metes recently presented early insights from her work on the COASST project in a poster at the National Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE).
Big Ideas Presentation
21st Century Science: The cutting edge is participation and collaboration.
THANK YOU!
We are grateful to the many collaborators from across UC Davis and beyond, who attended, provided support, and contributed feedback and general smartness in the lead-up to the Big Ideas Symposium, which took place on October 31st. We certainly felt the community-driven nature of this effort last Monday, as Heidi presented ideas about the Center alongside many other inspiring faculty who helped make the event a success.
Stay tuned for more information about the Big Ideas process in the coming months.
Citizen Science and Conservation
A recent paper quantifies and qualifies recent citizen science projects, sets best practices for conservation efforts in citizen science, and sees the gaps needed to fill for future citizen science efforts.
This post, written by Molly Michelson, originally appeared on the website of the California Academy of Science.
We’re going to need a lot of people
to save planet Earth—scientists, for example! Their research can
help policy-makers and governmental agencies make conservation
decisions about the regions, animals, and plants to save. But
there simply aren’t enough of these academics to go around.
What’s the Big Idea?
October 31: Come see the Center for Community and Citizen Science at the UC Davis Big Ideas Symposium
We are proud, and more than just a little excited to be part of the UC Davis “Big Ideas” program. Together with many partners on and off campus, the Center’s Faculty Director, Heidi Ballard has been developing a proposal for building the Center for Community and Citizen Science to be a transformative force across the university and beyond.
CCS coming to Madison!
Center staff participating in the annual NAAEE conference
The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) is holding its annual conference in Madison, this week. Our friends Heidi Ballard, Jen Metes, and Emily Harris are there to talk about our work on youth focused citizen science, and ways that citizen science can better inform conservation science and management.
New paper: What happens when youth participate in citizen science?
Now out in Biological Conservation, this new paper reports on what we are learning from our Youth-Focused Community and Citizen Science project. Looking across three in-school and community-based YCCS projects, we identify three key processes that support develop of environmental science agency (ESA) in young people: fostering youth ownership of data quality, interacting with complex social-ecological systems, and supporting youth sharing and dissemination of project findings.
Heidi Ballard Named a Chancellor’s Fellow
Heidi Ballard, associate professor of education, has been selected as a 2014-15 Chancellor’s Fellow. The Chancellor’s Fellows Program recognizes “the rising stars who shine as teachers and campus citizens, and whose scholarly work already puts them at the top of their fields — garnering attention far and wide.” It is one of the highest and most prestigious honors on this campus.
