Be(e) Engaged! How Students Benefit from an Educational Citizen Science Project on Biodiversity in Their Biology Classes

Abstract

Citizen Science initiatives and their underlying concepts play an increasingly important role in getting the public interested in science and current scientific topics—one more reason to include Citizen Science in the school context. We develop a teaching concept with the aim of raising students’ awareness of the importance of wild-bee biodiversity by involving them in scientific investigations. By addressing the issue, we hope to change student’s attitudes towards wild bees as represented by common native bumblebees and encourage them to participate in pro-environmental behavior (PEB). A total sample size of 437 German high-school students from grades five to seven participated in the project. We examine students’ knowledge about bumblebees and insect decline, students’ attitude toward wild bees, and their PEB intentions before and after the project. Learning enjoyment is also measured in the post-test. Our results show that students’ knowledge increases and they positively change their attitudes toward wild bees by participating in a Citizen Science project. Furthermore, we show that although knowledge and attitude significantly correlate with PEB intentions, no strong difference between pre- and post-tests can be observed.