I love the idea of a virtual citizens science expo that introduces people to citizen science where community gathers: the (virtual) library. It seems you were able to do one of then by now. Can you tell us more about your audience, and about initial findings for the expo?

Good Morning Everyone!

What an amazing project – connecting children to scientists to libraries to nature and in doing so enhancing both the lives of all involved and hopefully working towards a healthier natural world. So I have several questions to help kick off our discussion.

 First, I am curious if you have considered bringing in books beyond straight up nonfiction. This list is wonderful https://bookroo.com/books/topics/droughts and I would also add Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead. If you have used books like these, have you seen an impact on student engagement?

 Second, I’m wondering about the actual mechanics of this beautiful cycle that you’ve set up from scientist to library to student to nature. Are you able to tell how this cycle is actually functioning in practice, which parts are most strongly invigorating or benefiting the other parts? And have you been able to measure the impact on students (how much are they participating, what does their participation look like, are they engaging with all parts of the program equally)?

 And finally, I was so intrigued by your efforts to create a bridge between rural and urban areas (since that seems like a growing divide in our culture at large) so I’d love to hear a bit more about that.

 Feel free to respond to whatever aspects of this seem intriguing or add your own questions.

Hi everyone on this project.

What you describe seems to be a wonderful (and rare?) combination of university-public library-community activity.  Could you give me one specific example of how this complex relationship actually worked out in practice?

Hi everyone, thank you for your awesome comments and contributions!

From my own perspective as an Educational Technology graduate research associate working part time in the Emerging Technology and Creativity Research Lab at OSU, the Spotty Rain Campaign project has continued to provide very exciting and articulate ways where the EdTech folks led by Dr. Tutaleni Asino have been showing how technological tools can be effectively deployed to support citizen / community science projects. 

One of these ways is how our project team systematically designed and developed the ‘Make It Rain' Gauge from a web based Augmented Reality (AR) developers kit called Zappar. We also developed an AR booklet for librarians to serve as the installation guide for the ‘Make It Rain’ Gauge and to intimate aspiring citizen science volunteers on the next steps to take if they are interested in setting up weather observation stations in their backyards.

Check out the AR Librarian Booklet and The 'Make It Rain' Gauge presented by our project team at the CSA, 2021 Virtual CitSci Conference as a poster.

These technological tools such as AR and VR applications are very versatile in their application and majority of them can help citizen scientists to reach out to their communities, students or engage with volunteers. I am excited to learn more in this space, kindly share more cool educational or technological tools you have been using in one way or the other on your projects. 

Thanks. 

A.I. 

Hi Ayodeji,

I'm trying to limit what I download, so I didn't download the Zappar app, can you describe it for me? (and maybe others?)

George

Hi George and everyone,

The Zappar app is fantastic! I have been using it for more than 3 years now without any security flaws. To get a better description of Zappar, you can open our AR Librarian Booklet, I shared the same hyperlink earlier. If you cannot open it directly from the hyperlink, on your Internet browser type this link: www.flipsnack.com/ayoibukun/librarian-booklet-o.... Once the booklet is open go to page 5 where you can see the Zappar app logo (yellow, black and red colors) with a lightning bolt in the middle.

The Zappar app will allow you to have an AR interface on your phone or any other compatible mobile device. This app interface uses your phone's or the mobile device's camera to scan any AR zap code embossed on a target such as the rain gauge. Alternatively from your desktop computer, you can try the web based link for the zap experience, I shared it earlier here  'Make It Rain' Gauge: https://webxr.run/X4NPQzQMn6elx 

If you don't mind downloading  it, the app is one of the best ways for interacting with AR scenes or graphics created with Zap Works Studio from Zappar. All you need to do is to open the Zappar app on your device, then point your camera to the zap code, maintain focus for enough time to load the AR interface and the AR scenes will pop out of your phone's screen. Our current scene include multimedia content with some rain effects, thunderstorm sound effects, link to the Spotty Rain Campaign website and social media handles. 

I am interested in using educational technology tools to aid citizen science projects, kindly share how you can utilize this experience or something similar to it for your STEM projects.

Thank you for the feedback and do let me know if you have any other questions for me.

A.I.     

Thanks, Ayodeji, just reading the rain gauge booklet gives me at least some understanding of what can be done.   It reminds me of a long ago project from TERC, where students measured the acidity of local water (ponds, streams, etc.) all over the US and sent the data to scientists who were concerned about acid rain in the US.  Are you getting data that can be shared among local projects?

Ayodeji - Thank you for these wonderful descriptions of your work with the AR rain gauge. Definitely CHECK OUT the library guide that I linked here and Ayodeji linked above.

I really love this whole project and this little piece of it is a great example of your work.

 

As a colleague of some of the team members, I was already familiar with a portion of this project, but it is great fun to see the part I know presented in the context of the larger effort. Nice work on the video!

Hi Team Members, I find your research area interesting; watching the video and going through your poster provided me more insight on the potentials of AR beyond the educational settings. Well-done!

I love this! Thank you for sharing how you are using Citizen Science, which can be done safely during the pandemic. I have not considered using the aid of Librarians in exposing students to Citizen Science opportunities. 

I also wanted to invite to view an informal STEM experience done at University of Houston: https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/presentations/2031

This is a very creative project, and the team is multi-disciplinary and committed to strong partnerships. Plus the libraries involved are showing terrific leadership as a network of community centers for learning. One of the things I really liked about the Backyard Explorers video I saw was that the librarian shows a full cycle of inquiry, starting with a real question a child emailed the program, then going to the shelves and finding some possibly relevant books, and going outside to ground-truth what seems to be some possible answers to the question. How often do we see that?!