Term

Summer 2020

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAED: NSEE

Facilitator(s)

Kelly Killorn

Content Expert

Patrick Kelly

Abstract

Citizen Science, the crowdsourcing of scientific data collection, is becoming a valuable education tool for environmental educators and classroom teachers. Citizen Science has the capacity to teach students STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) and inquiry-based learning skills in a real-life setting, close to home, that matters to them personally. It provides participants with the skills to face future environmental problems and become civically engaged on environmental topics. This capstone project focuses on creating an education curriculum utilizing Citizen Science to answer the question: how can Citizen Science be used effectively within environmental education in order to foster environmental change? This curriculum focuses on using Citizen Science to engage both adults and children in environmental education programming focused on the preservation of the western firefly and local wetlands habitats. Reflection following this project describes how the project participants were able to create positive shifts in conservation awareness and behaviors within their communities and the benefits it provides to the environmental education profession by providing educators with a strong model and incentive for the inclusion of Citizen Science within future programs.

Keywords

Adult Education, Curriculum, Environmental Studies, Science

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

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Education Commons

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