The main goal is to enable schools, in particular teachers, parents and pupils, to participate in high quality citizen science projects in both curricular and extracurricular contexts.
Citizen Science (CS) has raised a lot of attention in the last years. Its main goal is to involve citizens in different types of science projects, in particular to
improve engagement and
to increase research capacities, e.g. by shared data collection.
Many projects have incorporated citizen science approaches. Whereas citizen science works well for educational purposes (e.g. in inquiry-based science education), the acceptance of CS on a scientific level ranges from low to questionable. Even though the European Association for Citizen Science has clear guidelines and support mechanisms, many CS projects are not taken seriously. This is the main starting point for the FabCitizen project: We aim at providing tools to increase the quality of CS projects, in particular in schools. For this purpose, we will integrate FabLabs as the main educational environment as they can provide both, technological as well as methodological expertise.
We base our project on clearly defined requirements, amongst them:
In schools, CS projects need to be embedded in the curriculum
To ease the implementation, teachers need high quality (open) scenarios and learning materials
CS projects need support in terms of methodological and technological expertise.
In the project, we will achieve the following main results:
A Citizen Science competency framework describing knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully engage in high quality CS projects incorporating the key skill of data handling (such as analytics, security, ethics)
A pedagogical concept incorporating aspects of inquiry and service learning
A guide for FabLabs as the key infrastructure to educate and train schools and citizens
At least 200 Open learning scenarios to train teachers, pupils and parents in early secondary school
A collection of Open Educational Resources supporting the approach
A good practice guide for schools and FabLabs across Europe.
Call:
2020 Round 1 KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices - KA203 - Strategic Partnerships for higher education
Ruolo Politecnico:
Partner
Responsabile scientifico del Politecnico:
Prof. Nicola Parisi
SSD:
ICAR/14 “Composizione architettonica e urbana”