A program designed to get Girl Scouts involved in citizen science motivated them to tackle scientific or environmental problems in their own communities, researchers report.

The findings demonstrate the impacts projects involving citizen science—programs where members of the public can participate in real scientific research—can have on their participants and offer lessons for other organizations on how to structure STEM-focused learning opportunities using citizen science.

“We’ve found that after participating in citizen science, students do not just learn more science content or the process of science, or have better attitudes or trust in science,” says study coauthor Caren Cooper, professor of public science at North Carolina State University. “It can be the basis for motivating action.”

The study evaluated the impact of a partnership between the Girl Scouts of the USA and SciStarter.org, an online hub for citizen science projects. Between 2017 and early 2020, more than 200 Girl Scout troops with girls between the ages of 4 and 11 participated in a program called “Think Like a Citizen Scientist.”

First, the Girl Scouts learned about making observations or predictions, collecting data, and doing data analysis. Then, they signed up to participate in a citizen science project through SciStarter. The most popular project was one led by applied ecology researchers at NC State called “Ant Picnic,” where volunteers created a picnic for ants, waited an hour, and recorded the number of ants that showed up.

“These citizen science projects were chosen by Girl Scouts and SciStarter to be age-appropriate, and were part of a multi-stage curriculum, or ‘journey,’ designed to introduce girls to citizen science,” says lead author Haley Smith, a PhD candidate in NC State’s Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology program.

“The Girl Scouts’ program design is a really great model, where learning activities are structured to build off of each other. Girls gain more independence as they go along. That’s something other organizations could use to set up participants in citizen science projects for success.”

After participating in the citizen science projects, the Girl Scouts completed “Take Action Projects” in their communities. These projects included activities such as installing recycling bins; educating family members about water pollution; creating gardens at a YMCA to attract native insects; raising money to buy science books for the local library; and even sewing sleeping bags for a hedgehog at a nature center.

Read the full article about citizen science by Laura Oleniacz at Futurity.