Designer considerations and processes in developing school-based citizen-science curricula for environmental education

School-based citizen-science can be a powerful means to engage youth in environmental education, yet developing robust science curricula around citizen-science activities is tremendously challenging. Prior research provides limited examples and very little guidance for curriculum designers. To support the designers of school-based citizen-science curricula, this research article presents a participant-observation case study of designer thinking and processes in creating and integrating in-class curriculum with citizen-science fieldwork. Interviews, observations, and documents of designer work aimed at supporting middle school students’ learning of climate change were analysed to gain insight into designer thinking, challenges, and resolutions. Findings indicate how designer work evolved through various measures, including appraisal by external advisors, inspiring examples, surveys of teachers’ implementations, and written pre-post assessments of student learning throughout the phases of analysis, development, and evaluation of the curriculum. Four key considerations for designing school-based citizen-science curricula emerged from the data: creating the learning environment around the fieldwork; tackling concerns about data quality and utility; making scientist-designed fieldwork engaging to students; and balancing scientific and educational goals. These considerations are discussed in light of relevant literature, and educational implications for design and research are presented

Boundary Crossing in Student-Teacher-Scientist-Partnerships: Designer Considerations and Methods to Integrate Citizen Science with School Science

Student-Teacher-Scientist Partnerships (STSPs) provide opportunities for students and teachers to participate in citizen science and engage with scientific concepts and practices, thereby bridging school learning with issues of importance to society, such as climate change. But STSPs require partners to cross boundaries between the cultures of science and schooling, which is extremely difficult. This three-year case study illuminates how successful designers tackled boundary crossing challenges while creating a scalable STSP for environmental education. Analysis of data gathered from three sources – designer-generated documents, interviews with designers, and researchers’ observations of the designer work - through an in-depth participant-observation approach revealed how designers (curriculum writers and partner ecologists) made it possible for middle school students and teachers from partner schools to contribute climate-related data to the ecologists’ research and to other citizen science programs, while accommodating teacher preferences and curricular constraints to pursue educational goals. Findings about how designers used specific methods and created curriculum supports to aid processes of boundary crossing are discussed in light of relevant literature, highlighting their considerations about specific stakeholder needs related to pedagogical, curricular, and scientific goals of the partnership. Further, distilled from the empirical findings and in light of relevant literature are three guidelines in designing for STSPs to foster student inquiry, to support teachers, and to provide multiple benefits through the STSP. These findings and guidelines can help designers anticipate and attend to boundary crossing challenges in STSPs designed for environmental education, with broader implications for science education in general

Work-based Curriculum to Broaden Learners' Participation in Science: Insights for Designers

Around the globe, science education during compulsory schooling is envisioned for all learners regardless of their educational and career aspirations, including learners bound to the workforce upon secondary school completion. Yet, a major barrier in attaining this vision is low learner participation in secondary school science. Because curricula play a major role in shaping enacted learning, this study investigated how designers developed a high school physics curriculum with positive learning outcomes in learners with varied inclinations. Qualitative analysis of documents and semistructured interviews with the designers focused on the curriculum in different stages—from designers’ ideas about learning goals to their vision for enactment to the printed materials—and on the design processes that brought them to fruition. This revealed designers’ emphases on fostering workplace connections via learning goals and activities, and printed supports. The curriculum supported workplace-inspired, hands-on design-and-build projects, developed to address deeply a limited set of standards aligned learning goals. The curriculum also supported learners’ interactions with relevant workplace professionals. To create these features, the designers reviewed other curricula to develop vision and printed supports, tested activities internally to assess content coverage, surveyed states in the USA receiving federal school-to-work grants and reviewed occupational information to choose unit topics and career contexts, and visited actual workplaces to learn about authentic praxis. Based on the worked example, this paper offers guidelines for designing work-based science curriculum products and processes that can serve the work of other designers, as well as recommendations for research serving designers and policymakers

Design dimensions: In-depth retrospective studies of K-12 science curriculum design

Design and development are critically important to the educational enterprise. Unfortunately, there is little research on which design and development processes produce optimal outcomes for curricular materials intended for large-scale implementation. The Design Dimensions project asks: Across phases of design (analysis, development, and evaluation), what processes and strategies are critical to successfully obtain large scale implementation with significant impacts on learners? Our work examines design processes with respect to three themes in science education: Deep Understanding and Rich Performance; Social and Cultural Experiences; and Implementation in Diverse and Resource-Limited Settings. A series of ‘deep dive’ studies examines designer processes in two successful contexts: the Lawrence Hall of Science and TERC. The first phase of investigation includes four retrospective case studies. This poster presents the theoretical framework and methodological approach used to investigate the work of successful design teams. We seek feedback from designers at ISDDE about the approach taken thus far