Learning in Citizen Science: The Effects of Different Participation Opportunities on Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

Citizen science (CS) projects are becoming increasingly popular in schools. They promise to expand knowledge, promote scientific literacy, as well as improve environmental attitudes and behavior. However, studies on the educational potential of CS projects show varying results. These inconsistent findings can be attributed to differences in the design of CS projects. It is assumed that participants who are involved in more phases of the scientific process show greater learning outcomes than participants who are involved in fewer phases. Various models about participation in CS have been developed but have not been thoroughly empirically tested. Therefore, the research question of this study is as follows: How do different participation opportunities influence the educational outcome of CS projects for students? To answer this question, a CS project was carried out with three experimental groups, whereby the participation opportunities were varied, and 199 students were included. The students’ knowledge, attitudes toward science, as well as their environmental attitudes and behavior were evaluated three times (before, shortly after, and 2–3 months after the intervention). The analyses show only minor or no statistically significant influences of the participation opportunities on participants. These results are consistent with studies that also expressed doubts about whether the level of participation determines the educational potential of CS projects.