Standard Research Grant: Community Science and Environmental Conservation

岛屿是重要的保育地点。但由于岛屿生态系统往往极其脆弱，生活在岛上的人同时也是这些生态系统面临的最大压力的来源，也可能是它们最有效的保护者。为了开始解决这一问题，该项目让岛上居民，特别是学生参与社区科学的进程：利用科学工具共同开发和共同调查当地关注的问题。这个项目特别注重培训高中生研究濒危物种的行为模式。人类与这些物种之间的互动可以作为岛屿上更大的人类生态问题的一个缩影，这些学生的调查结果有助于找到人类与非人类动物有效共存的方法。此外，这些学生参与这个项目可能会增加他们对科学过程的理解和保护的动机。由于这项拟议的研究涉及到世界上一个生态脆弱地区的高中生，它有可能在一个独特的脆弱环境中对保护和生态意识产生重大的积极影响，并成为世界各地类似努力的典范。这个社区科学项目有三个层次。首先，当地的高中生接受培训，收集对濒危物种及其行为的观察，以及这些行为因人类的存在而发生的任何变化。这些学生还负责在项目团队的指导下，将他们的成果传播给他们的社区，并制定新的保护工作。第二个层次是关于这些学生如何体验他们参与这个项目的影响的实证调查。这项研究将考察这种对社区科学的深度参与在多大程度上影响学生对保护、生态素养和对科学本质的理解的态度。第三层涉及对该项目的哲学思考，特别是它可以如何为有关科学的认识论和伦理学的问题提供信息，并有助于保护生物学哲学的平行讨论。因此，这个项目有利于濒危物种，有可能增加学生保护当地环境的动机，产生新的科学见解，并刺激关于社区科学哲学的少量但不断增长的文献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Islands are important conservation sites. But because island ecosystems are often extremely fragile, the people who live on them are simultaneously the source of the greatest stress on these ecosystems and potentially their most effective protectors. To begin to address this issue, this project engages island residents, particularly students, in the process of community science: co-developing and co-investigating issues of local concern using the tools of science. This project specifically focuses on training cohorts of high school students to study the behavior patterns of endangered species. Interactions between humans and these species can serve as a microcosm of the larger issues of human ecology on islands, and results of these students' investigations can help to find ways that people can productively co-exist with non-human animals. Further, these students' participation in this project may increase their understanding of the scientific process and their motivations for conservation. Because this proposed study engages high school students in an ecologically fragile part of the world, it has the potential to have a significant positive impact on conservation and ecological awareness in a uniquely vulnerable environment and to serve as a model for similar efforts around the world.This community science project has three tiers. First, local high-school students are trained to collect observations on endangered species, their behaviors, and any changes to these behaviors due to the presence of humans. These students are also responsible for disseminating their results to their community and developing new conservation efforts, with the guidance of the project team. The second tier involves an empirical investigation of how these students experience the impacts of their participation in this project. This research will examine the extent to which this deep engagement in community science affects the students' attitudes towards conservation, ecological literacy, and understanding of the nature of science. The third tier involves philosophical reflections on the project, specifically the ways in which it can inform questions about the epistemology and ethics of science and contribute to parallel discussions in philosophy of conservation biology. This project thus benefits endangered species, has the potential to increase students' motivations to protect their local environment, generates novel scientific insights, and stimulates a small but growing literature on the philosophy of community science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.