Change Makers: Crowdsolving the Energy Challenge through Cyber-Enabled Out-of-School Citizen Science Programs

作为在非正式环境中加强学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划为各种环境中使用的创新研究、方法和资源提供资金。在这个探索性的变革创造者项目中，协和联盟将开发、测试和评估一个利用创新技术的公民科学项目，这样年轻人就可以通过科学研究直接参与能源问题。该项目将创建红外线街景，这是一个公民科学项目，旨在使用智能手机上安装的负担得起的红外摄像头来制作谷歌街景的热力版本。红外相机是一种高通量数据采集仪器，每次拍照都会收集数千个温度数据点。青年将收集大量有地理标记的热数据，这些数据对于可视化能源使用和提高各级能源效率具有相当大的科学和教育价值。红外线街景计划将为年轻人和任何对能源效率感兴趣的人提供一个基于网络的平台，以查看和分析汇总数据，以确定可能的能源损失。通过与利益相关者分享他们的科学发现，年轻人将改变能源的使用方式。该项目将从选定地区的学校、公共和商业建筑开始，学校领导、镇官员和物业所有者允许对建筑进行热扫描，并发布用于教育和研究目的的热图像。该项目将与马萨诸塞州的高中和校外项目合作，对大约200名学生进行试点测试。为了促进学习，本研究将探索三个研究问题：1)在什么情况下，技术可以在校外和课堂科学学习之间架起桥梁，并改善双方的学习？2)基于数据挖掘的非突破性评估在多大程度上能够支持对校外环境下学生学习的研究和评估？3)教学智能能在多大程度上内置于该项目使用的APP中，帮助学生在校外项目中学习，并提高他们对公民科学项目贡献的数据的质量？调查这些问题的数据来源包括学生与幕后记录的应用程序的互动数据和他们拍摄的图像，以及基于少数参与者的传统评估结果。在整个项目中，工作人员将通过互联网、科学博览会、会议、出版物和合作伙伴网络广泛传播项目产品和成果。一个由清洁技术专家、科学教育工作者和教育研究人员组成的八人咨询委员会将监督和评估该项目。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this exploratory Change Makers project, the Concord Consortium will develop, test, and evaluate a citizen science program that leverages innovative technology, such that youth engage directly with energy issues through scientific inquiry. The project will create the Infrared Street View, a citizen science program that aims to produce a thermal version of Google's Street View using an affordable infrared camera attached to a smartphone. The infrared camera serves as a high-throughput data acquisition instrument that collects thousands of temperature data points each time a picture is taken. Youth will collect massive geotagged thermal data that have considerable scientific and educational value for visualizing energy usage and improving energy efficiency at all levels. The Infrared Street View program will provide a Web-based platform for youth and anyone interested in energy efficiency to view and analyze the aggregated data to identify possible energy losses. By sharing their scientific findings with stakeholders, youth will make changes to the way energy is being used. The project will start with school, public, and commercial buildings in selected areas where performing thermal scan of the buildings and publishing their thermal images for educational and research purposes are permitted by school leaders, town officials, and property owners. In collaboration with high schools and out-of-school programs in Massachusetts, this project will conduct pilot-tests with approximately 200 students. To contribute to advancing learning, the study will probe three research questions: 1) Under what circumstances can technology bridge out-of-school and classroom science learning and improve learning on both sides? 2) To what extent can unobtrusive assessment based on data mining support research and evaluation of student learning in out-of-school settings? and 3) To what extent can instructional intelligence built into the app used in the program help students learn in out-of-school programs and improve the quality of data they contribute to the citizen science project? Data sources for investigating these questions include students' interaction data with the app logged behind the scenes and the images they have taken, as well as results based on traditional assessments from a small number of participants. Throughout the project, staff will widely disseminate project products and findings through the Internet, science fairs, conferences, publications, and partner networks. An eight-member Advisory Board consisting of cleantech experts, science educators, and educational researchers will oversee and evaluate this project.