NSF Awards Grant to National Geographic to Investigate Learning Through Citizen Science
Oct 28, 2010CONTACT
Chandra Teitscheid
(202)
828-6678
cteitsch@ngs.org
WASHINGTON—The National Science
Foundation has awarded a $2.7 million, five-year grant to the National Geographic Society to launch a
major educational initiative that will engage the public in scientific research
about the world around them. In this educational research and development
project, National Geographic will develop and evaluate a Web-based software
platform called FieldScope to support citizen science projects involving
geographic data.
In a citizen science project, members of the public participate in
scientific data collection or analysis. For example, in the Christmas Bird
Count, one of the longest-running citizen science initiatives in the United
States, volunteers from around the country conduct a census of birds in their
area during a three-week period in December and January and submit their census
to the National Audubon Society. With this project, National Geographic is
looking to exploit the potential of citizen science projects to provide science
learning opportunities for their participants, especially for young
people.
While the growth of the Internet has contributed to an explosion in the
number of citizen science initiatives, the development of a technology
infrastructure has remained an obstacle for citizen science project organizers
because there are no specialized tools or resources for creating citizen
science platforms. Each organization has to develop its own database, entry
tools and tools for displaying and/or analyzing data. For scientific and
educational organizations that are typically interested in launching citizen
science initiatives, the development of this technological infrastructure can
be a serious technical and financial challenge.
Through this NSF-funded project, the National Geographic Society will be
helping scientific and educational organizations address this challenge by
providing them with tools to quickly and inexpensively launch citizen science
projects on the Web.
The project is focusing on a particular type of citizen science project
that National Geographic calls “community geography.” In a community geography
project, participants collect observations or measurements in different
locations and analyze them for geographic patterns. Funded by NSF’s Informal
Science Education Program, the FieldScope platform is being developed with
particular concern for the needs of projects whose goals include providing
science-learning experiences to their participants.
Said Daniel Edelson, National Geographic’s vice president for education,
“Community geography is a ‘killer app’ for teaching young people how to reason
about geography. Students get to observe firsthand how factors vary with
location and to learn from the data of others about how different places are
connected.”
In the first phase of the project, National Geographic will develop
easy-to-use tools for the three critical components of a community geography
project. Using state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) and social
networking technologies, FieldScope will allow participants to upload data to a
communal database, display, interpret and analyze the community’s data and
discuss their findings with the other members of the community.
Sue Allen, acting director
of NSF’s Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings, said,
“The development of capabilities to collect, store and share data as well as
utilize new tools for understanding data will greatly influence the ability of
the public to participate in science research as well as increase public
understanding of science generally.”
During the first phase, National Geographic will work with two “testbed
partners” currently running community geography projects, who will provide
input into the design of FieldScope. Project BudBurst, run by the National
Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), collects data about the timing of
seasonal changes in trees and shrubs, such as the date of first blooms in the
spring or changes in leaf color in the fall. FrogWatch USA, run by the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums, collects data about the ranges of frog and
other amphibian species.
This first phase has two goals: (1) to solve the technical and usability
challenges of supporting large-scale community geography projects, and (2) to
demonstrate the educational value of community geography projects for their participants.
In addition to designing and developing FieldScope, National Geographic and the
testbed partners will collaborate on the design of educational materials for
participants and on assessing the scientific and geographic learning that takes
place when school-age children participate in these projects.
During the second phase of the project, National Geographic will develop
a suite of open “FieldScope Project Builder” tools that will enable any
organization to construct and manage its own FieldScope community geography
site. National Geographic also will implement open protocols to allow outside
developers to extend the functionality of FieldScope. In this phase, National
Geographic will work with a larger circle of community geography projects, particularly
smaller, regional projects, to ensure the FieldScope platform meets their needs
as well.
The goal of the project is to create a powerful, open technology
platform to support community geography projects, so that organizations
interested in launching community geography initiatives for educational or
scientific purposes can focus their resources on building and supporting their
community rather than their technological infrastructure.
“With this project, the NSF and National Geographic will make it
possible for thousands of people who have great ideas for community geography
projects but lack the technical expertise or resources to build a technology
infrastructure themselves,” Edelson said.
This project will
be conducted by the Education Programs division of the National Geographic
Society. National Geographic Education works to improve geographic literacy in
the United States and around the world by developing educational resources,
providing professional development to teachers and advocating for educational
reform. This work is done through a combination of direct action and grant making
under the auspices of the National Geographic Education Foundation. National
Geographic Education also serves as the education outreach arm for National
Geographic’s Global Media and Mission Programs. For more information, visit education.nationalgeographic.com.
The
National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific
and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse
geographic knowledge,” the Society works to inspire people to care about the
planet. It reaches more than 375 million people worldwide each month through
its official journal, National Geographic, and other magazines; National
Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs;
maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media;
and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 9,400 scientific
research, conservation and exploration projects and supports an education
program promoting geographic literacy. For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com.
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