What Do Teachers Need to Bring Citizen Science into the Classroom? Lessons Learned from the Snuffelfiets Project

Abstract

Citizen science holds promise for science teachers to bring the world of scientific research to their students while simultaneously reaching several curricular goals, especially in biology and environmental education. As facilitators of citizen science projects and intermediaries between their students and research (institutions), teachers experience many needs. Lorke et al. (Training needs and recommendations for citizen science participants, facilitators and designers. COST Action 15212 report, 2019) have proposed a framework of needs that facilitators may have while facilitating a citizen science project. This framework is for facilitators in general and it may or may not fully apply to teachers specifically. With interviews based on the current framework, we have looked at the support and needs that science teachers in secondary education in the Netherlands received and felt while implementing the Snuffelfiets project, a project studying air quality while cycling, and whether the framework applies to teachers. We have identified three themes in the needs of the teachers. Firstly, teachers already have experience as facilitators for their students, but they still welcome support specific for the project. Secondly, as the participants are all students at the teachers’ schools, methods of engaging and supporting these participants need to be tailored to their level of knowledge and commitment. Thirdly, teachers highly value the “bigger picture” that surrounds the project, and they would enjoy receiving opportunities to show their students more of the world and society through the project. With this information, we propose teacher-specific adaptations to Lorke’s facilitator framework.