Youth in different citizen science programs manifest scientific understanding and environmental stewardship differently Citizen science could serve as an important link between the goals of environmental education—which focus on values and behavioral change—and science education, which emphasizes scientific understanding of the natural world. However, federal agencies make little use of citizen science, especially youth-based citizen science. This study examined three youth-based citizen science monitoring programs within the US Forest Service to understand how they integrated environmental education and science and to evaluate how they advanced ecological knowledge and environmental stewardship. These findings could be programmatically relevant to federal land management agencies, given federal initiatives to reconnect youth with nature.
The study collected data from three citizen science programs that had different content, designs, and objectives: the Alaska Natural Science Course, Youth Forest Mentoring Program, and Delta Apprenticeship in Science and Engineering in Colorado. Each program served adolescents (age 14-19) and taught them field-based scientific research methods to monitor national forests and streams. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with all students, field instructors, and staff in these programs to understand their respective content, design, and objectives. They then analyzed this qualitative data thematically to identify patterns that were relevant to their interests in integrating environmental and science education and evaluating the extent to which each program developed youths’ ecological understanding and environmental stewardship.
Overall, this data analysis yielded three groups of findings. First, each program integrated environmental education and scientific education; however, each did so in different ways and to different extents—which led to adolescents demonstrating scientific knowledge and environmental stewardship in different ways across programs. Second, interviews suggested each program developed adolescents’ scientific understanding. In particular, students in the Youth Forest Mentoring Program demonstrated the strongest systems thinking regarding the interrelated biophysical and social relationships in an ecosystem. Third, each program impacted participants’ environmental stewardship but—again—in different ways and to different extents. For example, those in the Alaskan program—which emphasized environmental stewardship—practiced and advocated for “leave no trace” principles. In contrast, participants in the Delta apprenticeship—which focused on science and engineering—expressed interest in conservation careers.
These findings potentially have programmatic implications for youth-based citizen science programs and broader conservation efforts. Citizen science proved to be an effective method to teach scientific inquiry and field work to high school students in all three programs. Even the students in the Alaskan program demonstrated stronger scientific knowledge after only one day of fieldwork. The programmatic characteristics which yielded the most environmental stewardship were (a) research projects that could be applied to the field, (b) ample time for field work, and (c) collaboration across student groups to discuss the implications of their field work. Students were more invested in and connected to conservation efforts when land managers made use of their data and research findings. The authors also identified the holistic nature of the Youth Forest Mentoring Program as enhancing adolescents’ systems thinking more than other programs. Not surprisingly, the programs’ different designs and aims resulted in different demonstrations of scientific knowledge and environmental stewardship.
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