Citizen science in the classroom enables students to experience what it is like to be a real scientist; conducting observations, recording measurements and communicating their findings. As citizen science grows in scope, and its many benefits for education become apparent, there is an increasing interest to formalise citizen science into schools.
But – How can teachers find the right citizen science project? One which is engaging for students, supports a school’s values and aligns with the required curriculum?
The aim of this research project is to map citizen science projects to the Australian and states curriculum and provide teachers resources that will accompany their citizen science journey in the classroom.
Mapping citizen science to the Stage 4 NSW syllabus
We are happy to share, we have completed phase 1 of our project – Mapping citizen science to the Stage 4 NSW syllabus!
We have handpicked a range of citizen science projects which vary in nature and scope and aligned these to the four ‘knowledge and understanding’ themes of the NSW syllabus:
- Physical World (PW)
- Earth and Space (ES)
- Living World (LW)
- Chemical World (CW)
We also provide an overview of citizen science contributions to skill development across all Working Scientifically (WS) processes and an overview of citizen science potential for learning across the curriculum.
The Document includes:
- Background information on citizen science and the NSW curriculum
- Examples of citizen science projects that map to the four ‘knowledge and understanding’ themes of the stage 4 NSW syllabus
- Overview of citizen science contributions to the development and application of scientific skills across all processes of ‘working scientifically’ processes
- Overview of citizen science potential for learning across the curriculum
Detailed curriculum mapping for selected citizen science projects
Stage 2 of this project aims to develop detailed curriculum mapping for selected citizen science projects. This will provide teachers information about projects aims, main curricular links and ways to engage students with the projects.
We are currently piloting our first detailed mapping with the Big City Bird citizen science project.
We want to hear what you think!
LBD is constantly trying to improve. If you’ve downloaded or used one of the resources designed by LBD, we would be grateful to receive your feedback through the following link – https://forms.gle/nMvnqkMcrrvMmUdx9
What’s next?
Next steps for this research project will include the expansion of curriculum mapping to additional stages (3,5,6) and broadening this work to syllabi of other Australian states. Stay tuned!
Image courtesy of the Australian Citizen Science Association photo library
Learning By Doing 