RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Combining formal education and citizen science: A case study on students’ perceptions of learning and interest in an urban rat project
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.01.27.921395
DO 10.1101/2020.01.27.921395
A1 Tuomas Aivelo
A1 Suvi Huovelin
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/05/2020.01.27.921395.abstract
AB Citizen science is a valuable tool in environmental and formal education in creating scientific knowledge for the researchers and facilitating learning and fostering a positive relationship toward the environment and study species. We present a case study on the Helsinki Urban Rat Project in which students surveyed rat occurrence in their own near environments. According to our results, experientiality, involvement, meaningfulness, freedom to choose, ease of participation, and the rats themselves contributed to students’ increased interest in participation. Furthermore, students described diverse factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge that they acquired during their participation. In general, students described negative attitudes toward rats, but they described fewer negative views on rats after participation. We reflect on the success of the citizen science project and implications of planning a future citizen science project and incorporating citizen science in formal education.