Engaging children and young people in lake ecology through activities in their spare time

TY - CONF

T1 - Engaging children and young people in lake ecology through activities in their spare time

AU - Okholm, Anna

AU - Greve, Christina

AU - Mohaupt, Laura Amy

AU - Kaarsted, Thomas

AU - Kragh, Gitte

AU - Egemose, Sara

PY - 2022/5

Y1 - 2022/5

N2 - Now children, young people and their families can learn more about the water quality and the plant and animal life in our approximately 200,000 Danish lakes and ponds through the Citizen Science project Lakes in spare time. The participants can through four different activities contribute to the collecting of data and achieve knowledge about our lakes and gain awareness of environmental challenges in relation to them. The following four activities are in cooperation with nature schools, libraries, societies organizing children and young people, citizens, and researchers.The four very different activities are:Find a lake, where citizens in a yearly ten-week period collect water samples from lakes and ponds. The samples are registered by an app and the samples are handed in at the local library or institution. The goal is to gain new and improved knowledge on lake water quality.Book lake communicator, where we offer a 2-3 hour on-site arrangement presentation with experiments and activities involving lakes for groups of at least 25 children, young people, and families.Lake suitcases, where citizens can borrow a box of equipment, including guides and fact sheets, and go explore the local lake. The users are encouraged to share their findings on the project homepage. Additionally, we are participating in BioBlitze’s and offering pop-up arrangements. And last, Lake camps, where children and young people spend three days together learning about lakes and their ecosystem through activities and experiments and collecting data.In 2021, 244 useful samples were handed in, in the Find a lake-activity and more than 950 citizens participated in the initial nine month developing phase of the overall project Lake in spare time.All data gained in the project will be available online and can be viewed by all interested citizens and participants and can be used for teaching purposes.The project runs from 1st of April 2021 to 301st of March 2025 and is funded by the Villum Foundation.Learn more about our project in our Prezi presentation

AB - Now children, young people and their families can learn more about the water quality and the plant and animal life in our approximately 200,000 Danish lakes and ponds through the Citizen Science project Lakes in spare time. The participants can through four different activities contribute to the collecting of data and achieve knowledge about our lakes and gain awareness of environmental challenges in relation to them. The following four activities are in cooperation with nature schools, libraries, societies organizing children and young people, citizens, and researchers.The four very different activities are:Find a lake, where citizens in a yearly ten-week period collect water samples from lakes and ponds. The samples are registered by an app and the samples are handed in at the local library or institution. The goal is to gain new and improved knowledge on lake water quality.Book lake communicator, where we offer a 2-3 hour on-site arrangement presentation with experiments and activities involving lakes for groups of at least 25 children, young people, and families.Lake suitcases, where citizens can borrow a box of equipment, including guides and fact sheets, and go explore the local lake. The users are encouraged to share their findings on the project homepage. Additionally, we are participating in BioBlitze’s and offering pop-up arrangements. And last, Lake camps, where children and young people spend three days together learning about lakes and their ecosystem through activities and experiments and collecting data.In 2021, 244 useful samples were handed in, in the Find a lake-activity and more than 950 citizens participated in the initial nine month developing phase of the overall project Lake in spare time.All data gained in the project will be available online and can be viewed by all interested citizens and participants and can be used for teaching purposes.The project runs from 1st of April 2021 to 301st of March 2025 and is funded by the Villum Foundation.Learn more about our project in our Prezi presentation

KW - Citizen science

KW - Ecology

KW - Public engagement

M3 - Poster

T2 - C*Sci2022

Y2 - 23 May 2022 through 26 May 2022

ER -