Be creative, or let your students get creative by having them conduct student-led scientific open inquiry investigations. This could be a great supplemental activity to a larger discussion or unit on topics like invasive species, habitats, competition, evolution, genetics, and more. This website has many resources for educators as well.Īnother one on insects! The Lost Ladybug Project asks citizens to help them collect ladybugs, photograph them, and submit the images along with some basic information such as location, date, habitat, etc, to their database. Students would learn about the natural history of ants in North America, what they eat, their behaviors, distribution, and more while contributing to real science. This is a great supplemental activity or could be a PBL project in itself. The purpose of this program is for citizens to help create a thorough map of ant species and ranges across North America. You can also check out my design thinking PBL project "Design and Build a Wildlife Shelter." Use my PBL tool kit to help organize this experience. You could split your students up into groups, have each team determine a bird of focus, design a bird feeder specific to the species of their choice, and then observe and count the birds to report to Project FeederWatch. In order to find this information students will have to do some research on the natural history of birds in their community. The shape, structure size, color, and food included will all be dependent on the bird they're hoping to attract and count. You could take advantage of design thinking by having your students build their own bird feeders. ![]() It is not simply a matter of counting birds in your schoolyard. I love this project! There are so many learning opportunities built into it. ![]() This is a great project for urban students that don't have easy access to natural areas. You don't have to be in the middle of a national park to find wildlife. This project encourages urbanites to observe their surroundings and appreciate wildlife. One upside (of many) is that it's global. Specific water quality kits need to be purchased to participate. The downside to this citizen science project is that it is not free. Students that are especially passionate about this issue and want to get more involved can apply to be ambassadors at this website. I also have several student-directed water pollution activities in my store including inquiry, PrBL, and PBL. C heck out my inquiry-based learning toolkit for guiding materials). Students monitor their local waterways by performing water quality tests.Ĭonsider implementing scientific open-inquiry labs on water quality in your area. This project is fantastic for raising awareness and educating students on water issues across the globe. There is also a step-by-step guide included on this website to help guide users through the process of developing their own citizen science projects. They can build their own citizen science projects here and crowdsource any number of documents or data points. They can search for ideas relevant to their interests. If you are having your learners do student-directed PBL projects, this website is a great place to start. It is not fancy and does not have a special section for educators like many of the websites mentioned so far. This is a super black and white, straightforward catalog of citizen science projects in the U.S. Get your ducks in a row so that you feel confident and excited about student-led PBL! ![]() There are five videos each on a different element of preparing for student-led PBL including getting a structure, schedule, implementation strategy, scaffolding materials, and the learning space in order. Students connect with and collaborate with the community, and the experience is authentic, as are the learning outcomes.Ĭheck out my free mini-course for tips, tricks, and suggestions for actionable steps on getting your student-led project-based learning classroom or homeschool ready! It is easy to turn citizen science projects into PBL experiences because many of the elements of PBL are organically there. ![]() One way to approach citizen science experiences is through project-based learning. They are active citizens, an important 21st-century skill. Participating in citizen science also shows students that they can play a role in improving the community and the world around them. One is the application of science concepts to the real world, which is an element of experiential learning. Citizen science is a great learning tool for many reasons.
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