RCN-UBE: 3dNaturalists bioblitzes, citizen science, and undergraduate learning

这个RCN-UBE项目旨在将学者和实践者聚集在一起，在公民科学、少数民族参与、学生学习和保护区管理之间的交叉点探索大数据倡议。该网络将有三个主要活动：(1)跨学科讲习班，将从业者、学者、机构管理人员和学生聚集在一起；(2)学生实习，为学生提供使用公民科学数据和时空数据集的入门研究经验；(3)学生学习经验的协同评价。该网络将重点关注为生物多样性问题收集的公民科学数据，特别是物种识别、物种发生和栖息地参数。生物闪电战活动是大型公共活动，重点是24小时生物多样性调查，是利用清单、智能手机应用程序和其他方法吸引公民参与科学的工具。将科学参数添加到公民科学工具中，再加上团队学习活动，使学生既参与科学，又参与发现。虽然越来越多的研究关注于帮助学生理解科学，但大多数评估工具只能间接衡量学生在科学领域的参与度和领导力。这个项目的智力价值在于，它解决了公民科学工具在该领域日益增长的使用，并探索了公民科学活动作为新的创新方法的潜力，以吸引代表性不足的少数民族学生参与STEM，特别是利用课堂外和当地社区的活动。预计这些评估将对扩大对环境科学的参与具有总结性和形成性的应用。该项目的广泛影响包括来自不同职业水平的各种生物和社会科学分支学科以及来自广泛机构的教师。此外，参与的学生来自许多不同类型的机构，包括社区学院、少数民族服务机构和本科院校。教师和学生都反映了美国日益增长的多样性。未被充分代表的少数民族，特别是对与社区联系感兴趣的学生，被选为参与生物闪电战的团队的一部分。在生物闪电战期间，学生们既是研究助理，又是公民科学，这样他们既能学习科学，又能成长为领导者。作为一项关键成果，共同标准和评估将在多个机构和生物学学科中使用，以确定使用公民科学和课堂外非正式环境的发现经验如何能够吸引学生参与STEM领域。该项目由生物科学理事会和本科教育司教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其应对《本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁》（http://visionandchange/finalreport/）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。

This RCN-UBE project seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners to explore big data initiatives at the intersections between citizen science, minority participation, student learning and protected areas management. The network will have three main activities: (1) interdisciplinary workshops that bring together practitioners, academics, agency managers and students; (2) student internships that provide introductory research experience for students using citizen science data and spatial and temporal datasets; and (3) collaborative assessments of student learning experiences. The network will focus on citizen science data collected for biodiversity questions--specifically species identification, species occurrence, and habitat parameters. The bioblitz activities, large public events focused on a 24 hour survey of biological diversity, are tools that engage citizens in science using inventories, smartphone apps, and other approaches. The addition of science parameters to the citizen science tool coupled with team learning activities engages students in both science and discovery. While an increasing number of studies focus on helping students decipher science, most assessment tools only indirectly measure student engagement and leadership in the sciences. The intellectual merit of this project is that it addresses the growing use of citizen science tools in the field and explores the potential for citizen science activities as new innovative approaches to engage underrepresented minority students in STEM especially using activities outside of the classroom and in the context of local communities. It is envisaged that these assessments will have both summative and formative applications to broadening participation in the environmental sciences.The broader impacts of the project include the faculty who come from a variety of biology and social science sub-disciplines at different career levels and from a wide range of institutions. In addition, the participating students come from many different types of institutions including community colleges, minority serving institutions and undergraduate institutions. Both faculty and students reflect the growing diversity of the United States. Underrepresented minorities and especially students interested in connections to communities are selected as a part of a team that participates in the bioblitzes. Students act as both research assistants and citizen sciences during the bioblitz so they both learn the science and grow into leadership. As a key outcome, the common standards and assessments will be used across multiple institutions and disciplines of biology to determine how discovery experiences using citizen science and informal settings outside the classroom can engage students in STEM fields. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).