MOMSTER, a Europlanet-funded public engagement project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stijn Calders ◽  
Hervé Lamy ◽  
Michel Anciaux ◽  
Karolien Lefever ◽  
Katrien Kolenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Mobile Radio ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
School Students ◽  
Project Proposal ◽  
Radio Receivers

<p>In May 2020, Europlanet Society launched a call to fund projects to engage the public with planetary science. Our project proposal called MOMSTER: MObile Meteor STation for Education & outReach was amongst the three projects that were granted.</p> <p>MOMSTER aims at developing a Meteor Education Kit as a resource for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) teachers in secondary schools. The kit includes a mobile radio meteor station consisting of a dedicated antenna and radio receiver, as well as an educational package to learn all about meteors and their detection methods, while at the same time conveying a fascination for the ephemeral beauty and complexity of these natural light shows. The project goals are stimulating STEAM (ultimately resulting in nudging future career choices towards science or engineering career paths) and the use of citizen science (especially the Radio Meteor Zoo initiative on the online citizen science platform Zooniverse) at schools, and reaching the general public.</p> <p>The development of educational resources builds upon preliminary experiences we gained by participating in an Erasmus+ project called BRITEC (Bringing Research into ThE Classroom), in which teachers and pupils participated in the Radio Meteor Zoo activity.  We are presently in a pilot phase where three Belgian schools (two Dutch speaking and one French speaking) test the mobile radio meteor station and the educational resources, and give their feedback.</p> <p>We are using STEAM-education as an approach to broaden our target group towards less scientifically oriented students. We do this by developing an educational resource on visual (science) communication. We also organized an art & design competition for high school students with more than 30 submissions. The best piece of art will decorate the ‘MOMSTER boxes’ we use for transport of the radio receivers.</p>

SeaCleaner: Focusing Citizen Science and Environment Education on Unraveling the Marine Litter Problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Merlino ◽  
Marina Locritani ◽  
Mascha Stroobant ◽  
Erika Mioni ◽  
Daniela Tosi
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Marine Strategy Framework Directive ◽  
School Students ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations

AbstractThe Pilot Project “SeaCleaner” is a citizen science and educational project, developed by the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian Research Council (CNR-ISMAR). Since 2013, it has involved environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), volunteers, five Italian Marine Protected Areas surrounding the Pelagos Sanctuary, and so far more than 50 high school students within the Italian program for “work-related learning internships.” The project aims to overcome the lack of current data on marine litter—a gap of knowledge that cannot be ignored any longer, according to the last European Union's ambitious Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)—by building an app for Android devices, which is easy to use and, at the same time, methodologically sound and comprehensive. This should enable a continuous census (in time and space) for supporting the proper management and removal of solid waste (through scheduled campaigns, etc.). The project has multiple effects: (1) to prompt students to broaden their scientific knowledge on topics not strictly related to scholastic curricula, making them aware of current environmental problems and teaching them how to solve them; (2) to engage an increasing number of volunteers in marine litter monitoring activities; and (3) to contribute to a common protocol for data acquisition, useful for both environmental and scientific purposes, helping scientists to overcome the lack of current data on marine litter.

Supporting access to open education resources and massive open online courses for high school students of New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 244-253
Author(s):  
Sittara Hakim
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Open Education ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
School Students

Open education promotes an absolute openness in the dissemination of education, eliminating barriers including, but not limited to, cost and access to free and relevant resources. For open education, digital content has provided a means of not just sharing resources, but for promoting an interactive and collaborative culture of pooled Open Educational Resources to help others have the freedom of learning and educating themselves as per their necessity and yearning. Open Educational Resources in higher education have quickly gained a reputation, expanded and evolved with Massive Open Online Courses. In this paper, the significance, approach and implications of open education are extended to secondary education. Recommendations are reported for the development of High School Open Educational Resources in New Zealand, including the establishment of a High School Object Repository.

scholarly journals The value of citizen science for ecological monitoring of mammals

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle Waldstein Parsons ◽  
Christine Goforth ◽  
Robert Costello ◽  
Roland Kays
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Black Bear ◽  
Camera Traps ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Private Land ◽  
School Students ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Center Staff

Citizen science approaches are of great interest for their potential to efficiently and sustainably monitor wildlife populations on both public and private lands. Here we present two studies that worked with volunteers to set camera traps for ecological surveys. The photographs recorded by these citizen scientists were archived and verified using the eMammal software platform, providing a professional grade, vouchered database of biodiversity records. Motivated by managers’ concern with perceived high bear activity, our first example enlisted the help of homeowners in a short-term study to compare black bear activity inside a National Historic Site with surrounding private land. We found similar levels of bear activity inside and outside the NHS, and regional comparisons suggest the bear population is typical. Participants benefited from knowing their local bear population was normal and managers refocused bear management given this new information. Our second example is a continuous survey of wildlife using the grounds of a nature education center that actively manages habitat to maintain a grassland prairie. Center staff incorporated the camera traps into educational programs, involving visitors with camera setup and picture review. Over two years and 5,968 camera-nights this survey has collected 41,393 detections of 14 wildlife species. Detection rates and occupancy were higher in open habitats compared to forest, suggesting that the maintenance of prairie habitat is beneficial to some species. Over 500 volunteers of all ages participated in this project over two years. Some of the greatest benefits have been to high school students, exemplified by a student with autism who increased his communication and comfort level with others through field work with the cameras. These examples show how, with the right tools, training and survey design protocols, citizen science can be used to answer a variety of applied management questions while connecting participants with their secretive mammal neighbors.

scholarly journals High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (24) ◽  
pp. 9178
Author(s):  
Ellen J. Hahn ◽  
Craig Wilmhoff ◽  
Mary Kay Rayens ◽  
Nicholas B. Conley ◽  
Emily Morris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
School Students ◽  
Radon Exposure ◽  
The University ◽  
Radon Testing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Family Centered

Residents in rural Kentucky (KY) and suburban Ohio (OH) expressed concerns about radon exposure and lung cancer. Although 85% of lung cancer cases are caused by tobacco smoke, radon exposure accounts for 10–15% of lung cancer cases. Academic and community members from the University of KY and the University of Cincinnati developed and pilot-tested a family-centered, youth-engaged home radon testing toolkit. The radon toolkit included radon information, and how to test, interpret, and report back findings. We educated youth as citizen scientists and their teachers in human subjects protection and home radon testing using the toolkit in the classroom. Youth citizen scientists explained the study to their parents and obtained informed consent. One hundred students were trained in human subjects protection, 27 had parental permission to be citizen scientists, and 18 homeowners completed surveys. Radon values ranged from < 14.8 Bq/m3 to 277.5 Bq/m3. Youth were interested and engaged in citizen science and this family-centered, school-based project provided a unique opportunity to further the healthy housing and quality education components of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Further research is needed to test the impact of student-led, family-centered citizen science projects in environmental health as part of school curricula.

scholarly journals Knowing the people who come to public astronomical observatories: The case of Akita prefecture, Japan

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (H16) ◽  
pp. 640-640
Author(s):  
N. Kawamura
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Elementary School Teachers ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
School Students ◽  
The People ◽  
Akita Prefecture ◽  
Questionnaire Research

The purpose of this research is to know and gain a better understanding of people who come to astronomical observatories and to find out more about their experiences and thoughts on astronomy. To find some of the issues about science communication in astronomy, the author carried out questionnaire research studies involving high school students and junior high school and elementary school teachers.

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