We challenge you to create: Project models and approaches for Citizen Science in Puerto Rico (contributory, collaborative, co-creative)

Citizen Science projects of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (CTPR) are aim to engage citizens in nature so they can become stewards of ecosystems. Although, the conventional model for citizen science is a participant... [ view full abstract ]

Citizen Science projects of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (CTPR) are aim to engage citizens in nature so they can become stewards of ecosystems. Although, the conventional model for citizen science is a participant attending training session to learn standard methodologies to measure/asses species, habitats and ecosystems from a scientist and then go off to collect data on their own and share data with the scientist is successful. The CTPR propose an alternative model that includes the scientist throughout the spatial and temporal long-term data collection. In this model, the participants are mentored by the scientist or scientific assistant to pass through the different phase of the citizen science model (contributory, collaborative, co-created). The main goal is to enable the participants to develop the skills of scientific inquiry as they participate with the scientist so as to develop their own research question and experiment to address STEM concerns within their community. This approach challenges the project team to provide opportunities such as field trips, workshops, dissemination for participants to interact with scientists in more intimate manner to stimulate dialogue about experiments or research that they would be interested in developing through this project. Based on the criteria set by scientists currently we have 16 participants that have passed the contributory phase of the model and committed to developing a community based science project. These criteria vary from the numbers of times participants contributed to data collection and analysis, skills on equipment use, ability to do data entry and analysis and confidence to disseminated information about Citizen Science project. The new proposed model of citizen science provides an alternative exciting opportunity to engage citizens to create projects that concern their environment and everyday lives.