Science Action Club: Educating and Empowering Youth through Citizen Science in Urban Afterschools

The field of citizen science spans a wide range of topics, offers multiple points of entry, and impacts global and local communities in a variety of ways, yet many communities remain underrepresented in these experiences. In... [ view full abstract ]

The field of citizen science spans a wide range of topics, offers multiple points of entry, and impacts global and local communities in a variety of ways, yet many communities remain underrepresented in these experiences. In an effort to engage a more diverse group of participants, as well as to capitalize on citizen science as a strategy for science learning and civic action, the California Academy of Sciences partners with local community organizations to run a network of Science Action Clubs (SAC) for middle school youth in afterschool environments. SAC reaches youth where they already spend time - in their local schools and neighborhoods - and provides high quality science resources, including curriculum materials linked to citizen science projects, supplies for hands-on investigations, custom-configured digital technology, and professional development for afterschool and school day staff. Our current network of 17 clubs has the capacity to reach more than 650 Bay Area public school youth each year and plans are underway to spread and scale. But there are challenges to embedding citizen science in an academic curriculum - even an informal one. Typically, citizen scientists form a mostly-adult community of self-motivated science enthusiasts: participants choose to spend their leisure time collecting dead bees or documenting the biodiversity of intertidal reefs to better understand and protect our planet. Without thoughtful support and scaffolding, citizen science does not always hold the same intrinsic allure for middle school youth. In this session, we will reflect on the strengths and challenges of using community partnerships to increase the number and diversity of youth engaged in citizen science, as well as explore the value add and obstacles to employing citizen science as an engagement strategy for science learning. We’ll share highlights from our Science Action Club resources, including our Citizen Science Toolkit for Educators.