NSF Awards: 1811234
It is our belief that science is better when community wisdom and voices co-lead at every step of the research process. This video will highlight how our community science project, The NOISE Project (noiseproject.org) has carried out science within an equitable framework, led by diverse voices from communities historically excluded from the sciences. Our project processes speak to the priorities, challenges, barriers, and opportunities for equitable collaborations between science institutions and community organizations.
Our video presents our project’s strategies and tools for creating a more just, thoughtful, and equitable scientific enterprise that more meaningfully reflects the priorities and realities of diverse communities. We value difference and recognize the urgent need for STEM institutions to share and cede power. We’ll showcase our learnings focused on the value of community perspectives in scientific research, and share our experiences in creating intentional processes to achieve more equitable, collaborative community science projects.
Our project is guided by practical, co-created tools, such as our non-negotiables for doing research in our communities, working agreements, and decision-making processes. We illustrate the importance of intentional, transparent, processes in research collaborations and explore key terms like co-creation, equity, privilege, and the myth of color-blind objectivity in science. We advocate for community leadership in ALL aspects of community science, including research, programming, dissemination, and evaluation.
Photographs and video footage can be credited to members of the project: Marilu Lopez Fretts, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), WorldBeat Cultural Center, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, Camp Compass and Green Jay Bird Conservancy
Chip Bruce
Professor Emeritus
I like, and am especially interested in the community involvement aspects. Can you say more about how local funds of knowledge contribute to or guide specific inquiries?
Lisa Marun
Hi, Chip.
Thank you for your interest in the community-centered aspect of our work! Broadly speaking, there are different levels of community involved in this project. First, there are the NOISE Project team members, who together form a culture that is rooted very strongly in a foundation of JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion). As individuals, each of us holds equal weight in terms of our input in conversations, and we strive to ensure on a continual basis that everyone feels safe and valued, and that their knowledge contributions are important to all of us.
Also, there are some organization-based groups with the NOISE Project, and each of these groups has a purpose and mission within their respective communities. These organization have their own funds of knowledge based on their strengths, resources, local community challenges, and other factors. As such, some of the specific inquiries are guided by insights that are revealed at this more local level and shared through collaboration and reflection with the wider NOISE Project team.
Finally, we have the broader community outside of the NOISE Project team that we connect with directly in order to inform not only our inquiries, but also the types of resources we can provide to address the socio-economic, health, and environmental challenges related to noise pollution. The demographics and specific noise pollution issues of different places, and even for different individuals, are variable. As such, our inquiries and the resources we aim to provide are meant to be accessible and serve as at least a good starting point for anyone and everyone who wants to know about the health and wellbeing effects of noise pollution, as well as the relationship between noise pollution (and other environmental issues) and social justice and equity.
Best, Lisa (NOISE Project team member)
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Greetings Chip,
Thanks for your interest and question. Our project strongly values the interests of the community. We constantly check in to make sure that the research and tools we develop are relevant to our communities.
This research project is led by 4 community co-principal investigators from across the country. Each of us has different community priorities and provides different backgrounds of expertise. We also have the opportunity to create our individual research, tools or opportunities for our communities. My organization in San Diego for example is interested in wellness. We wanted to understand how the outdoors and sound could be a solution to noise pollution. From this initial curiosity and interest, we began researching plant intelligence through plant music. We found that not only is there plant communication happening beneath the earth that can benefit or affect the ecosystem but that plants emit a certain frequency that can be translated through technology that can benefit our wellbeing.
Through COVID we found that gardens like ours can act as buffer zones against noise pollution and as places of refuge or sanctuaries. It's especially important for frontline communities to have a safe outdoor environment in urban cities.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Mateo Castelli
Shihadah Saleem
Shakuntala Gopal
Wow that is really interesting research Makeda. Is there somewhere I could read your work about plant frequencies?
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Shakuntala, thanks for your interest in our project.
Below I have a few links to blog articles we've written over the course of the project.
My community is also building a small website for our project in San Diego and we will feature it on our website. Meanwhile I invite you to keep up with the full project using our Noise Project website.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Rita Hagevik
I just love that science is everywhere! Yes communities of course has so much to offer and they are the ones that live there too. Great project!
Cecilia Alvarez
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Thank you Rita,
Our Co-PI Bobby Wilson of Metro Atlanta Urban Farm is adamant that science is everywhere. We frontline community organizations don't separate culture and science. Yes Rita we live there too and thanks for recognizing that.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Catherine Pham
Mateo Castelli
Nancy Staus
Senior Researcher, STEM Education
It is so important for communities to be co-creators of citizen science projects! Can you speak more about the non-negotiables and how they shaped the Noise project?
Cecilia Alvarez
Mateo Castelli
Hi Nancy! Thanks for this question. As someone who collaborates on the Noise project, I can say that the non-negotiables shaped the Noise Project tremendously. You can think of the non-negotiables as a community co-created IRB. The existence of our non-negotiables acknowledges that there are ethical and cultural considerations for doing research in communities that are not accounted for in the IRB. Having non-negotiables that are created by the community gives space for these considerations to be highlighted. This set of principles really impacts the project because they provide guidelines that institutional researchers are required to follow in order to ensure that the research is beneficial and respectful towards the communities we collaborate with. These principles shape how we do research, how we communicate with each other, and how and who disseminates our research! These are just a couple of ways that I personally see the project is shaped by our non-negotiables, but there are definitely many more.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Catherine Pham
Lisa Marun
Hi, Nancy.
I second all of Mateo's comments. In addition, I would also note that his response went from past tense (per your question about how the non-negotiables shaped the project) to present tense (These principles shape how we do research...). Although we set up the working agreements, non-negotiables, and our community framework from the start, they are an active component of our team's dynamic process, and we continually, reciprocally, give them life as they simultaneously serve to guide us.
Finally, if you haven't already, we invite you to see our list of non-negotiables and the place they have within out process: NOISE Project Process. Our hope is that you and others in the STEM community, and in the community at large, will consider the benefit and significance of having these types of equitable and inclusive agreements in place to reflect a shared vision, mission, and values!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Mateo Castelli
Shihadah Saleem
Sr. Manager of Youth Leadership and Alumni Programs
Well done, the collective impact is so evident. Can you speak towards the sustainable practices of the Noise project and how it can ensure longevity within the highlighted communities?
Sasha Palmquist
Cecilia Alvarez
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Greetings Shihadah / Shay,
First I'd like to commend you on the work you're doing in New York with women and young girls in STEAM. One of the ways that I see sustainability in this project is that we are each creating projects in our respective communities that can be integrated as core programs or tools for each of our organizations. Some of us are incorporating a similar set of non-negotiables for our organizations, others have created wellness toolkits for their community that can be used in the future, or activities around equity and noise, others like my organization have created an outdoor healing sanctuary. For my community, this sanctuary is our garden and with this project, we were able to intentionally create programming and add sound elements to create calming effects.
I feel that we are each committed to equity in science in our own way.
Lynda Gayden
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Shihadah Saleem
Mateo Castelli
Shihadah Saleem
Sr. Manager of Youth Leadership and Alumni Programs
Thank you Makeda for your response and recognition of my work.
Sasha Palmquist
Crystal James
What an awesome display of how partnerships can increase capacity and amplify critical health messages.
Jeremy Roschelle
Cecilia Alvarez
Catherine Pham
Mateo Castelli
Shihadah Saleem
Daniel Zietlow
This is great! And yes, I think it's super important that community knowledge is elevated. With all of your co-creation work, what have you found to be some of your best practices for the co-production process?
Cheers, Dan
Lisa Marun
Hi, Dan.
Thank you for the positive feedback and for your question. As a member of the NOISE Project team, I would say that part of the answer to your question is in the question itself: we're actually practicing co-creation and co-production (i.e. these are not just goals on paper). We've all made a promise to listen and to speak our voices; to be sincere and also respectful; and to learn and grow in sometimes uncomfortable and unfamiliar ways, knowing that truly flipping the established approaches to science is a lot harder than talking about/planning/hoping for this change. We're all committed to the belief that there is a more equitable, diverse, inclusive, just, and—frankly—valid way of doing science than we've been exposed to. And this shared commitment is a vital component to making each of our team members know that we have a unique and important role in this project and in this process, as well as a role to serve for all of those who are willing to learn from our experience.
Best, Lisa
Mateo Castelli
Daniel Zietlow
Thanks for sharing your insight!
Ilana Wallenstein
Very important!
Cecilia Alvarez
Danielle Espino
Wow, what a fantastic video and project. I came across your video as it popped up in the suggested "related videos of interest" column of our own page, and I'm glad I was able to learn more about this project. One of the PhD students on our research team has a dissertation interest in approaches to decolonizing school curriculum in Africa, and I wonder if there are insights here she can cite in her work. Interested in any papers you might have on the results of the project so far.
Shakuntala Gopal
I absolutely love the premise of this project. I was just on a panel yesterday where we discussed this idea that who defines the problem defines the solution and how so often folks outside of the communities that the problem is affecting are the ones who define the problem. We see this as problematic because then solutions are derived that are simply not relevant or sustainable for the folks who matter the most - the community!
Of course, maintaining relationships and co-creation is tough. What kind of challenges have you faced?
Cecilia Alvarez
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Shakuntala, you understand it completely.
Yes, collaborations and co-creation can be challenging. We're all from different parts of the country and have different backgrounds. Community-based organizations working with dominant culture institutions can be challenging too but we valued the work that we're doing because we're living the mission. The To meet these challenges we adapted working rules based on the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing
We have been committed to our mission: to equitably and inclusively transform the sciences through underserved community voices and perspectives.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Shihadah Saleem
Cecilia Alvarez
Catherine Pham
Mateo Castelli
Leah Friedman
Love this work (and the whole video)! I'm wondering how you went about defining which community stakeholders you wanted to make sure you work with and/or how you created welcoming spaces in which to do that? Also wondering if you can elaborate or link to more info on the 5 principles of organizing that you mention. Thanks!
Jeremy Roschelle
Cecilia Alvarez
Berenice Rodriguez-Moran
Community Outreach Coordinator
Hi Leah,
Most of the Community Based Organizations that are a part of this project we're also part of another NSF funded project where we formed as ICBOS and created our research protocols and materials around creating equitable and authentic collaborations between science institutions and community-based organizations. The NOISE project does have a few new members which some of us have collaborated with before. We have members whose first language is Spanish and we always make sure everything is understood by providing translation when asked as well as translated material. We also make space to showcase our various talents including those that are artistic to disseminate our work.
And yes I believe you are referring the Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing. I'd like to also invite you to our website where we show various processes that we've adapted to the project.
Thanks!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Leah Friedman
Catherine Pham
Mateo Castelli
Chip Bruce
Professor Emeritus
Shakuntala makes a very important point regarding the idea that who defines the problem defines the solution.
It reminds me of the Community as Intellectual Space idea in Paseo Boricua, Chicago. That led to the high school curriculum and several years of conferences involving local universities, but led by the community. It also included wonderful dance, drums, Puerto Rican food, personal stories and more.
Cecilia Alvarez
John Fraser
wonderful approach to knowledge building. Thanks for doing this work. Co-creation is an essential step forward in research paradigms. I'm wondering if you've followed the Sounds of New York City project. I think there's a lot of connection between this work. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/marl/research/projec...
Cecilia Alvarez
Lisa Marun
Hello, John.
Thank you for the acknowledgement of the value of co-creation in research paradigms! SONYC is a great citizen science research example, and there are indeed many similarities between that project and what many other citizen science projects are doing in terms of incorporating citizens into science. Their focus on noise pollution, of course, dovetails with ours. I would highlight, however, that a crucial distinction between their work and what we're presenting lies in the people and the process of our research. Our People page on our website looks very different from nearly all other citizen science research projects. Our process is grounded in the notions of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion—at all levels from the inside out, not just the public that we invite to join us.
Thanks again for thinking of how our work connects with that of some many other important projects going on around us. We definitely value the benefit of sharing support with other STEM projects! And we're hopeful that what we're doing isn't just a step forward, but becomes a reality in the here-and-now for all who embrace the co-creation process.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sarah Escandon
Excelente! I love the way you are able to involve the community. Extremely relevant when the community members are part of identifying the problems and the solutions. It is beautiful to see that regardless of their age, gender, race or background, all are giving the opportunity to share their knowledge and gifts.
Cecilia Alvarez
Makeda Cheatom
Karen Purcell
Principal Investigator
Hi Sarah, Thanks for your comment! The cool thing about this project is that it isn't about involving community - it is about the communities leading! Makeda and Berenice from the WorldBeat Center, John Annoni from Camp Compass Academy, Bobby Wilson from Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, and Tanya Schuh from Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio are co-Principal Investigators and there are a total of 15 community leaders making all decisions and shaping the project.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Josmar Márquez
Catherine Pham
Marley Jarvis
Thank you so much for this great video and the issues you raise! I came across this same kind of thing in my former life in marine science and fisheries. Local knowledge is generational and powerful.
Josmar Márquez
Cecilia Alvarez
Cecilia Alvarez
Community Researcher
Greetings Marley,
Thank you for your interest. The local knowledge is light, power and is amazing when you co-create, the results that can be obtained are amazing.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Josmar Márquez
Lydia Horne
Great to see power relations being upended! I saw a lot of great images of group meetings, sticky sheets, etc. Was your work disrupted by the pandemic and if so, how did you continue your collaborations? What barriers did you encounter and have to overcome to continue this work remotely?
Josmar Márquez
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Greetings Lydia,
Some of the images that you see are from our annual in-person meeting. Last year, of course, we weren't able to meet. Throughout each year of the project, we work remotely from our various locations and meet online and on the phone "a lot". We have full project meetings and working group meetings to help us advance our research and necessary decision-making. During the pandemic, we continued to strive for consensus and even more embrace solidarity and mutuality amongst ourselves. In the early part of the pandemic, we allowed ourselves to honor each of our community's and organizations' needs. Each of our four Co-PI communities had different priorities and as we adapted so did each of our site projects. Here in San Diego, our project programming went virtual with online streaming.
Thanks so much for your interest.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Sasha Palmquist
Lydia Horne
Karen Purcell
Mateo Castelli
Mateo Castelli
Hi Lydia,
My name is Mateo and I work with the Noise project! Supporting everything Makeda has shared, I wanted to add a comment because it's been so interesting to see how this project took on pandemic work with so much patience, care, and intentionality. One thing that was cool for me to witness was that our project didn't seem to struggle as much when we had to switch over to fully virtual work. Logistically speaking, it did not feel as overwhelming as I noticed it was for my friends and colleagues in their own projects and work. When I thought about this I realized that by working to communicate in ways that were inclusive and accessible, our project had basically already implemented the tools necessary to accommodate for a global pandemic! We were already used to using all methods of communication (email, text, phone calls, scheduled meetings, unscheduled meetings, surveys, polls, video calls) to work. This came from the fact that we aim to have communication be accessible to everyone even when project members are working in different time zones and work schedules. I found that switching over to fully virtual work gave me an opportunity to reflect on how intentional we were with communication and how central that is to our collaboration!
Thanks for your question :)
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Lydia Horne
Karen Purcell
April Bartnick
Wow! I love the opener in your video. Noise pollution is something I don't think about much until I visit a city. Also, when thinking about environmental justice, we often think about water and air pollution, but noise pollution is something that might be overlooked. Thanks for bringing awareness to this issue. I agree that breaking down barriers and making scientific knowledge accessible is so important to communities. I visited your web page and plan to take the survey. Do you post your survey results on the web page?
Cecilia Alvarez
john annoni
All, we appreciate your comments and questions. The answers you seek will be coming from our team shortly. We hope you continue to stay safe and seek findings that will make communities across America stronger and more cohesive. Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think about helping facilitate such a project from a formal standpoint. It seems I always had to follow the narrative placed in front of me by "experts"-- Even if I felt uncomfortable in my gut . The opportunity to be trusted to share my "nontypical" perspective on this project lead me to find out that my perspectives on community progress wasn't so nontypical after all. I do believe the journey we all travel is stitched together with differences. It's those differences, if communicated with pure intentions, that become the flooring to the important work communities will benefit from. Thanks for stopping by and ALWAYS stay encouraged!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Leah Friedman
Josmar Márquez
Cecilia Alvarez
Karen Purcell
Mateo Castelli
Mateo Castelli
An appreciation post for the amazing work that Makeda, Berenice, and the WorldBeat Cultural Center have done on this video! As a member of the project, I feel proud of the way that this video represents our collaboration and work. It really shows the creativity, solidarity, and importance of relationship building that is at the core of the Noise project. Thanks to Makeda and the team for another amazing video!!!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Josmar Márquez
Catherine Pham
Thank you for this amazing video, friends at Worldbeat Cultural Center! Science is everywhere, and this project is about communities leading the work!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Karen Purcell
Mateo Castelli
Mira Kudva Driskell
Kudos to Makeda, Berenice, and everybody else at the WorldBeat Center for putting together such an awesome video! I really loved the visuals. I also loved how Mateo talked about the importance of creating spaces specifically designed for community-led projects, and Cha Cha's focus on “learning by doing”!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Makeda Cheatom
Josmar Márquez
Cecilia Alvarez
Community Researcher
Me siento muy orgullosa de formar parte de este maravilloso grupo de ICBO´s.
Este video y el trabajo incansable que realizan cada uno de los integrantes de este grupo desde la comunidad y con la comunidad, es increíble . Makeda y Berenice gracias por este maravilloso video que muestra como la ciencia esta y puede hacerse desde cualquier lugar. La voz de las comunidades es importante y que ellas sean las que liderean estos proyectos. El poder co-crear proyectos que sean significativos y que tengan un impacto positivo en la comunidad, donde los miembros puedan involucrarse en todos los procesos, nos permite hacer las cosas de una manera más justa, equitativa, diversa e inclusiva.
Gracias a todos los miembros y ojalá que el trabajo que hacemos pueda inspirar a otros y se replique en otras comunidades.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Josmar Márquez
Makeda Cheatom
Itzel Aceves-Azuara
¡Hola Cecilia! ¡Que proyecto tan importante! Me preguntaba si pudieras hacer algunos comentarios sobre cómo ha sido el proceso de incorporar a miembros de la comunidad en proyectos como el suyo. ¿En que maneras se ha beneficiado el integrar conocimiento comunitario a proyectos STEM? ¿Han visto algunas formas de organización mas colaborativas?
Lo pregunto porque en nuestra investigación hemos observado que aprender para beneficiar a una comunidad es un propósito común del aprendizaje en algunas comunidades mexicanas, indígenas y otros grupos que no han sido representados históricamente en espacios como las universidades.
Bobby L. Wilson
As a Co-PI and one who also represents an ICBO (independent community-based organization), I am more than humbled to be a co-creator with my friends and colleagues from across the country, including Mexico, of the work that is being dong under the umbrella of the NOISE Project. The work that Makeda and Berenice are doing is a reflection of the entire team's commitment to JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) in STEM/STEAM (A is for agriculture). Science is everywhere! When communities' voices are given equal value in the process, the results of the research has more value. Instead of top down research, I maintain that moving the needle forward will result in communities being able to speak their own truth, seek funding based upon their truths, and engage large institutions as co-creators of the processes that will lead to more equitable inclusion of marginalized and underserved communities in the sciences and in informal scientific research. The work of WorldBeat Cultural Center and other ICBOs is moving the needle in the right direction. Thank you, Makeda and Berenice, for the outstanding work that you are doing.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Makeda Cheatom
Josmar Márquez
Josmar Márquez
Maravillosa labor, encantado de poder ver muchos resultados de todo el trabajo que realizan los ICBO's para mi han sido un ejemplo y una palmada en la espalda, para poder decir si estamos haciendo las cosas bien en Venezuela, sus guías y ejemplo han servido para continuar nuestro trabajo de inclusión y lucha por la equidad en la ciencia. Que sigan los éxitos y cosechando más valiosos resultados. 🇻🇪✌🏻😍🙋♂️
Mateo Castelli
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Makeda Cheatom
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Bilingual Community Outreach Specialist
Gracias, Josmar, por tus palabras. También nos enorgullece trabajar lado a lado con comunidades y líderes como tú que centran la equidad y la inclusión en todo lo que hacen.
Jennifer Borland
I love the acknowledgement and valuing of lived experience and community members' unique ways of knowing and appreciate all the effort that went into establishing the collaborative ecosystem for this project to thrive. After watching your video I was curious about the working agreement and non-negotiables but I saw the link you provided above. Thank you! This was a delightful video to watch and it sounds like an amazing project. I hope that some of these strategies and practices can become more common place in all community-based STEM programs.
Sasha Palmquist
Makeda Cheatom
Susan Warshaw
I liked the emphasis on process! This is how you get things done. Excellent program.
Makeda Cheatom
Kelly Greene
Thank you for sharing your project! We would love to collaborate and connect regarding the Chief Science Officer Program that engages youth in community impact projects.
Asset mapping and understanding your area for local project planning is important, as mentioned in your video. We value experience. We value community. We love STEM!
If you are interested in connecting - let's brainstorm. KGreene@SciTechInstitute.org
Anne Stevenson
What an amazing amount of work you have done to make this all a reality! I am learning so many things reading the posts and from your video. I hope we can do a deeper job in our project and curriculum incorporating these important components of engagement, as we seek to guide young people in engaging in their communities around science! Thank you for what you have shared!
Makeda Cheatom
Executive Director
Greetings,
I would like to thank everyone who shared their comments and interest in our project. It's such a pleasure to engage in meaningful dialogue through this platform and see all the amazing projects each of you are doing. It's an ongoing process and we each have a role to ensure we work towards a more equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible present and future in the sciences. It's also important to share and acknowledge the accomplishments of the BIPOC community in our classrooms and continue to create culturally relevant STEM projects.