The YardMap Network: Social Networking for Community Science

康奈尔鸟类学实验室、学习创新研究所和几个环境组织正在将现有的以鸟类为重点的公民科学项目与园艺和在线社交网络活动结合起来，为老年学习者(35岁及以上)提供机会，调查在他们的后院、社区花园和公园实施美化和碳减排实践对环境的影响。YardMap Network项目正在开发学习资源，通过加入一个由10多万人组成的全国性生态社会网络，帮助园丁、观鸟者和新手学习改善鸟类栖息地和减少碳排放的生活实践。该项目的目标是创建在线学习社区，通过提供YardMappers在他们的后院和其他绿色空间学习、设计、评估、分享和发明保护实践的经验，将人们从基本和中等水平的生态理解提升到高级水平的理解。在开发网络的同时，该项目将收集数据来验证这样一种假设，即将公民科学活动与社交网络技术相结合创建在线学习社区可以提高参与者对与项目相关的科学、技术、工程和数学的理解。该项目将使用标准评估技术并通过跟踪个人的进入路线、网络互动、绘制的花园实践、碳中性行为以及他们的鸟类监测活动来跟踪学习结果。YardMappers将自然地分为治疗组，创建一个准实验设计，以测试社交网络对基础、中级和高级学习结果的重要性。

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Institute for Learning Innovation, and several environmental organizations are merging existing bird-focused citizen science programs with gardening and online social networking activities to provide older adult learners (age 35 and up) with opportunities to investigate the environmental impacts of implementing landscaping and carbon-reducing practices in their backyards, community gardens, and parks. The YardMap Network project is developing learning resources that will help gardeners, birders, and novices learn bird-habitat improving and carbon-reducing living practices by joining a nationwide ecological social network composed of more than 100,000 people. The goal of the project is to create online learning communities that move people from basic and intermediate levels ecological understanding to advanced levels of understanding by providing experiences whereby YardMappers learn about, design, evaluate, share, and invent conservation practices in their backyards and other green spaces.While developing the network, the project will gather data to test the hypothesis that coupling citizen science activities with social networking technologies to create online learning communities improves participants' understanding of project-relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The project will track learning outcomes using standard evaluation techniques and by following individuals' routes of entry, network interactions, mapped garden practices, carbon-neutral behaviors, and their bird monitoring activities. YardMappers will divide naturally into treatment groups, creating a quasi-experimental design to test the importance of social networking for basic, intermediate, and advanced learning outcomes.