WTimpact – Institute of Education – Leibniz University Hannover

Division:	IPN—Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education cooperating with the Division Teaching and Learning Research in non-formal Education
Duration:	09/2017 – 02/2021
Funding:	Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Project description

More and more often, scientists and citizens are working together on research projects. This type of participatory research is also referred to as citizen science (CS). Citizen science projects are designed to help scientists obtain data and information. At the same time, they are intended to provide participants with knowledge about the respective research field and scientific working methods.

So far, little is known about what impact citizen science actually has on participants. The aim of the WTimpact research project is to find out more about this. The new findings should help to design citizen science projects in the future in such a way that participants benefit optimally from them.

In this subproject, we will investigate what the participating citizen scientists learn about the three topics (wildlife, bats, and air quality or weather in the city) as well as scientific reasoning skills in the project, and what their attitudes towards science in general and citizen science in particular is. To this end, questionnaires on the three topics will be adopted or developed, and used in the field studies as well as in laboratory studies. Recommendations for the application of the instrument in other scientific fields will be derived from the results. The transfer instrument developed in the collaborative project will be applied to other scientific topics – provided that the evaluation is successful. Furthermore, the extent to which the transfer instrument can be used in school and out-of-school learning opportunities will be examined.

Cooperations

COOPERATIONS

PROJECT PAGES

Publications

Bruckermann, T., Greving, H., Schumann, A., Stillfried, M., Börner, K., Kimmig, S. E., Hagen, R., Brandt, M., & Harms, U. (2023). Scientific reasoning skills predict topic-specific knowledge after participation in a citizen science project on urban wildlife ecology. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 60(9), 1915–1941. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21835
Bruckermann, T., Greving, H., Schumann, A., Stillfried, M., Börner, K., Kimmig, S., Hagen, R., Brandt, M., & Harms, U. (2021). To know about science is to love it? Unraveling cause-effect relationships between knowledge and attitudes toward science in citizen science on urban wildlife ecology. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 58(8), 1179–1202. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21697
Bruckermann, T., Greving, H., Stillfried, M., Schumann, A., Brandt, M., & Harms, U. (2022). I’m fine with collecting data: Engagement profiles differ depending on scientific activities in an online community of a citizen science project. PLoS ONE, 17(10), e0275785. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275785
Bruckermann, T., Stillfried, M., Straka, T. M., & Harms, U. (2022). Citizen science projects require agreement: a Delphi study to identify which knowledge on urban ecology is considered relevant from scientists’ and citizens’ perspectives. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 12(1), 75–92. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2028925
Bruckermann, T., Straka, T., Stillfried, M., & Krell, M. (2021). Context matters: Accounting for item features in the assessment of citizen scientists’ scientific reasoning skills. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 6(1), [21]. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.309
Greving, H., Bruckermann, T., & Kimmerle, J. (2020). This is my project!: The influence of involvement on psychological ownership and wildlife conservation. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 1, [100001]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2020.100001
Greving, H., Bruckermann, T., Schumann, A., Stillfried, M., Börner, K., Hagen, R., Kimmig, S., Brandt, M., & Kimmerle, J. (2023). Attitudes toward Engagement in Citizen Science Increase Self-Related, Ecology-Related, and Motivation-Related Outcomes in an Urban Wildlife Project. BioScience, 73(3), 206–219. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad003
Greving, H.*, Bruckermann, T.*, Schumann, A., Straka, T., Lewanzik, D., Voigt-Heucke, S., Marggraf, L., Lorenz, J., Brandt, M., Voigt, C. C., Harms, U., & Kimmerle, J. (2022). Improving attitudes and knowledge in a citizen science project on urban bat ecology. Ecology and Society, 27(2), [24]. https://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-13272-270224 *shared first authorship