This is great! I am curious if you see particular barriers to sustainability after the project ends? I could imagine that the citizen science framework makes it a lot easier to connect schools with science to do than was possible in the past!

Yes, we are working hard to develop infrastructure that will promote sustained participation in CSR. That includes developing robust function of Professional Learning Teams and well established collaboration with practicing scientists leading projects that benefit from the contributions of the students. But as you mention, it will be interesting to see how effective this is in achieving sustainability. We hope to be able to follow this and develop additional research aimed at optimizing those outcomes in the future.

Thanks for sharing! Are you looking at how different aspects of this work are related to student attitudes, motivation, and engagement? I’m curious about how engagement could be related to several things, e.g., students engage in research that’s related to real and important issues that other students and scientists are also investigating…or the fact that the research their doing has a real connection to their own lives and communities.

This looks like a great project! A few questions: 1) the video mentioned what a few of the 3-5th graders are doing and it sounds like the next phase moves onto including the 6th-8th graders. Does this mean some of the students who participated in 3rd-5th grade will be involved again in the next few years? (I could see great benefit to this.) Also, will you continue to work with grades 3-5 in the next phase? 2) Does a class have only one project that they work on throughout the year? 3) Is there any sort of formal follow-up where students/classes review their work in the Globe database compared to others for an extended thinking/learning around their research’s impact?

1) Yes, the grades 3-5 students will go on to experience the next level of participation as they enter grades 6-8. We are working with each cohort of teachers formally for a total of three years. We hope to remain in communication with them beyond that period. We are putting structures and practices in place that we hope will sustain these innovations beyond the term of the grant.

2) Each classroom only works on one project during the year in collaboration with professional scientists leading that project.

3) Yes, teachers are expected to guide their students in an examination of the full data set for their research project, comparing and contrasting their data and their findings with those of others who are involved in that project. They are learning that their data have greater value because it contributes to a larger effort and can be used in conjunction with the data that others have contributed to address real scientific questions. This is a central aspect of the project: students recognize that the work they are doing is real and has real value to others.