Thank you for visiting our TL4CS video! Because we are early in our work, we wanted to share our project goals, process thus far, and proposed outcomes with you.  Our team welcomes feedback and would like to pose the following questions to researchers, curriculum developers, and teachers: 

Researchers:  We’re doing design-based implementation research (DBIR). As we move from initial development into the first phase of research on the materials, what would you recommend we be alert to?

Curriculum Developers:  With citizen science projects in mind, what do you see as the highest priorities for teacher support?

Teachers: What have been your successes and obstacles implementing citizen science projects with your students?

Thanks for sharing this video. How is your team thinking about the creation of supports that can span citizen science projects that may differ in terms of content?

Great project that provides a needed bridge between citizen science and elementary school science. I'm looking forward to seeing your teacher learning findings.

There is such an opportunity to engage young learners in science by helping teachers access Citizen Science formats in more supportive ways.  As a teacher educator, I would love to hear what you find to help prep future teachers to engage more with citizen science. 

Thank you Folashade for watching our video. As we launch our project we too are eager to find which of our supports will best serve the teachers in our project. As we plan our supports for teachers and are getting feedback from our Teacher Advisory Group, we recognize that on thing they appreciate is the connections to standards. This helps the teachers see that citizen science is not an addition to their teaching demands, but that it helps them meet their existing instructional goals.

What a wonderful project that addresses an important intersection between citizen science and teacher implementation.  I appreciate that you have a teacher advisory board to think with you through this project and look forward to hearing about what you learn as you move from development into research.

Wow! Such cool work and important work. It sounds like by participating in TL4CS, teachers will have opportunities to experience specific projects and collect materials that will support them in teaching their elementary students on their own school grounds, all while incorporating the standards. I know that the NC Museum of Natural Science is a partner that is working on this, my question is are there materials being developed to support conceptual investigations at the museum as well?

Thank you for this video. This project clearly has lots of potential for knowledge building on how a citizen science approach works in schools. Thanks also for clearly articulating the research questions and methodology for addressing them. The use of established projects like CoCoRaHS and Lost Ladybug seems smart. Can you say more about the role of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences?

This is such a cool project!  Thank you for sharing your work!  I would love for my own children and for all elementary students to experience these learning opportunities.  I also commend you for having a Teacher Advisory Group.  Sean, you asked about what to be alert to as you move into first phase of research on the materials.  I would want to know how teachers perceive the materials and how they fit into what they are/were already doing.  I would also want to know the teachers' perceived obstacles/constraints (as well as successes) they have encountered.  It seems the systems-level perspective would be important, too -- how principals, STEM leaders, and other district leaders value citizen science and thereby likely influence the implementation of the materials through the decisions that are made (e.g., scheduling, policies, school and district level competing initiatives).  I am so excited to follow your progress.  Great work!  

Patrick and team thank you for a great video that clearly illustrates the main goals and methods for the TL4CS project. There are several aspects of TL4CS that resonate with our work at UNH, including exploring methods to support elementary teachers' science instruction and their ability to integrate established citizen science platforms in meaningful ways that support students' learning goals.

I am particularly interested in your 3rd research question related to impacts on students' attitudes about science and nature. What instruments or methods will your team use to measure teachers' impact on students' attitudes toward 'nature and science'? Will you be measuring what teachers' report about their students or asking students to complete a survey, etc.?

Thanks for sharing this project, especially so early in your process!

Lara, thank your for your question (and your great video!). We are still narrowing down the instruments we'll use, but right now, the frontrunner for attitudes toward nature is this one:

Cheng, J. C.-H., & Monroe, M. C. (2012). Connection to nature: Children’s affective attitude toward nature. Environment and Behavior, 44(1), 31–49.     For attitudes toward science, we're looking at measures from the Activation Lab.

If you have other suggestions, we would be grateful for them. We will also be doing case studies of teachers and will include questions about their students' attitudes when we interview the teachers.

Sarah and Patrick,

Important R&D, looking forward to learning more about the program and your research.  We are embarking on a multi-year effort here at SMU with opening preK-8 STEM school in the West Dallas community - WDSS.     In planning phase now and for the last two years, soft opening of grades 7&8 in August and the build out from the bottom grades up.  So let's keep in touch!

Rick, your new STEM school sounds like it will be a great addition for the West Dallas community. We appreciate your looking at our work. We have a special team, and we are excited about the opportunities to support teachers and their students. Let's do keep in touch.

We are using citizen science projects with teachers too - including elementary school. We are doing the native bee home project, the great sunflower project, the great pumpkin project, and bumblebee watch. 

Rita, these projects all sound so relevant and I look forward to learning about them. Thank you for watching our video. Your work on supporting STEM careers is important work too.

Patrick and Sarah, great to hear that you are finding the Science Learning Activation Lab measures useful, as they are the result of many years of hard, thoughtful work. As an informal STEM educator I'm further interested in how NCMNS is involved the project.

It wasn't until the start of this STEM for All Showcase that teacher support materials for CitSci projects really came into the spotlight for me (unforgivable as I'm a former educator myself). Now, as the Research Coordinator for an online citizen science project I'm realizing how crucial this is for STEM equity, encouragement, and even just to continue driving usage of our platform! 

No questions, just a "thank you" for sharing your project and helping to reinforce this eye-opening moment for me. 

Saira, thank you for your supportive post. We appreciate your watching our video and we share your excitement for the potential of citizen science and your recognition of the importance of STEM equity and encouragement.

I enjoyed seeing elementary teachers doing science. As a former K-12 science administrator, I know first hand about the battle of making science a priority. How are you able to help your teachers see the value of making citizen science a part of the school day?

Shane, thank you for watching our video. We are still in the development phase of our work and have a teacher advisory group helping us prepare for our coming work with more teachers. In order to meet our goals for teachers to include citizen science in their school days, we are developing supports that align with their existing science standards for 5th grade. We agree with you that helping teachers to prioritize science is an important goal. We look forward to sharing more about our work. We appreciate your important question.