Citizen Science: Real Data for a Real Need in the Real World JAMES VANDE GLIND
I
am standing on the bridge in a local park near our high school in Fridley, Minnesota. It is a beautiful day to be outside. The leaves are still green overhead, but you can tell that fall is just around the corner. From the stream down below I hear the back and forth of several high school boys. “Yes! I found one.” “Fatmucket?” “I am not sure, the edge is kind of rounded.” “Probably just a Giant Floater.” “At least it’s a live mussel! All you have found is dead Heel Splitters filled with sand.” To any other park user, these young people standing knee deep in the stream might look like they are skipping school and calling each other names, but they are actually living out my deepest hope as a Christian school science teacher. They are caring for creation by doing real work to meet a real scientific need in the real world. For the past three years, my students and I have been collaborating with freshwater mussel researcher Mark Hove. Our goal is to study the Fatmucket, a native freshwater mussel, and how its life cycle is impacted by road salt. We are doing real research. We are asking novel questions and setting up novel experiments. Unlike the tried and true experiments from my chemistry class, some of our experiments have failed, but then we improved them and tried them again. We are producing data that people outside of our classroom care about. In fact, in the past year, Mark Hove has published two articles sharing the data that our high school students helped gather, and we are working toward two more articles in the coming year.
For the past three years, my students and I have been collaborating with freshwater mussel researcher Mark Hove. Our goal is to study the Fatmucket, a native freshwater mussel, and how its life cycle is impacted by road salt.
What Is Citizen Science? Producing data that other people care about is core to citizen science. An exact definition of what constitutes citizen science and what does not is still being parsed out. However, in an article pressing for an internationally recognized definition of citizen science, Heigl and his co-authors identify that “citizen science has amazing potential as an innovative approach to data gathering and experimental design, as well as an education and outreach tool.” They praise citizen science for “democratizing science” and for it being “science with and for society” (8090). As a high school educator, what citizen science means to me is that my students are participating in science that matters beyond the classroom walls.
Christian Educators Journal
February 2023
5
As a high school educator, what citizen science means to me is that my students are participating in science that matters beyond the classroom walls.
