At its core, Youth-Focused Community and Citizen Science is all about when young people play a role in creating new scientific knowledge, becoming experts in their local environment, and then using that new knowledge to take action and make change. The resources found below have been designed to support youth engagement in a variety of citizen science projects on school campuses in both formal and informal educational settings. The Framework for Youth Learning in Community and Citizen Science has been used as the foundation for these resources, and is embedded into our community and citizen science resource materials - highlighting core activities like developing youth expertise - that intersect with key educator practices – such as shifting instruction to position youth as experts. This framework helps us understand how what we do leads to our desired outcomes.

Check out our resources highlighted below:

Literacy, Language and Community Connections where you will find classroom and at home supports for engaging students in rich dialogue and literacy skill building focused on environmental science (Parent Handbook, Sample Units, Book Lists and more).

Beginning a Project – Asking Questions of Your Campus where you will find classroom examples and lessons (slide decks, vidoes, teacher supports and templates)  that support students in developing questions.

Connecting to the Standards where you will find units of study that correlate YCCS project and ELA standards, resources to connect standards to projects by grade level and teacher resources for understanding how to use a YCCS project to deepen engagement and learning.

CitSci on the Farm where you will find a website that contains classroom resources and educator professional development materials for student projects monitoring biodiversity.

City Nature Challenge where you will find a webpage with a guides and other resources to hosting a classroom bioblitz.