The Development of a Curriculum Framework for Citizen Science to Meet the Guidelines for Environmental Literacy

Abstract

Students learn skills and gain experience through numerous educational strategies. Citizen science encourages skill development and understanding of the natural world in students by engaging them in hands-on experiences with the scientific process, while conducting valuable field research for the scientific community. In addition, it engages students in learning that has merit and meaning to them. Citizen science also contributes to meeting the goal of environmental education. Environmental education’s goal is environmental literacy which is defined by a citizenry that has the knowledge, skills and motivation to make responsible decisions about the built and natural environment. As a result of environmental education’s integration of many disciplines such as science and social studies, citizen science curricula that focus on environmental literacy can effectively address various subjects. A framework that concentrates curriculum development on the skills, knowledge, experiences, and goals essential to citizen science and environmental literacy for students was required to meet this need. The goal of this study was to create a curriculum framework for developing and teaching citizen science education programs that focus on increasing students’ environmental literacy. A framework is a planning guide that identifies and organizes student learning goals and outcomes, and focuses curricula development on them. The framework was developed and validated using a Delphi survey technique; a method to generate ideas and facilitate a consensus among experts in a specific field. Citizen science professionals identified those guidelines of environmental literacy outlined in the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Excellence in Environmental Education: Guidelines for Learning, as well as additional program characteristics essential to curriculum development from this research. The resulting framework consists of a series of guidelines that aids educators and gives examples of how citizen science curricula can be used to meet state and national education standards. The development of this framework strengthens the relationship between citizen science and environmental literacy, presents clear goals for citizen science, provides curricula justification by meeting educational standards, and is a starting point for further research.