Experiences from a Citizen Science project engaging children and young people in lake ecology through activities in their spare time. Lakes in spare time

TY - CONF

T1 - Experiences from a Citizen Science project engaging children and young people in lake ecology through activities in their spare time. Lakes in spare time

AU - Egemose, Sara

AU - Greve, Christina

AU - Okholm, Anna

AU - Melgaard, Annika

AU - Kragh, Gitte

AU - Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt

AU - Kaarsted, Thomas

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - All children and young people should have the possibility to experience the joy of learning about nature and planetary health. Only through learning will we also understand, love, and protect something (Diom, 1968), in this case our freshwater environments. In the citizen science project ‘Lakes in Spare Time’, the participating children and young people learn about freshwater quality and biodiversity through participatory science in and around Danish lakes and ponds, of which there are approximately 200,000. Through the various project activities, the participants contribute to freshwater research by collecting data while they gain knowledge and awareness of environmental challenges in relation to lakes and ponds. All project activities are happening in collaboration with nature schools, libraries, societies engaging children and young people, families, volunteers, and researchers. There are four main activities; Find a lake, Book a lake communicator, Lake suitcases and Lake camps. All in informal arenas and centred about experiments, activities, and equipment in relation to lake ecology, but in different timespan. Project goals, in addition to the learning goal, include gaining new and improved knowledge about water quality and biodiversity, as well as making data gained available online by the participants or us, depending on the activity, so it can be viewed and used by all interested parties, including the public. Our presentation will focus on the experiences gained from engaging children and young people in a citizen science project in their spare time in an informal learning environment. We will share our thoughts and considerations as well as our experiences in relation to engagement and commitment of young participants, collaboration across disciplines, data collection, quality of data and knowledge dissemination.

AB - All children and young people should have the possibility to experience the joy of learning about nature and planetary health. Only through learning will we also understand, love, and protect something (Diom, 1968), in this case our freshwater environments. In the citizen science project ‘Lakes in Spare Time’, the participating children and young people learn about freshwater quality and biodiversity through participatory science in and around Danish lakes and ponds, of which there are approximately 200,000. Through the various project activities, the participants contribute to freshwater research by collecting data while they gain knowledge and awareness of environmental challenges in relation to lakes and ponds. All project activities are happening in collaboration with nature schools, libraries, societies engaging children and young people, families, volunteers, and researchers. There are four main activities; Find a lake, Book a lake communicator, Lake suitcases and Lake camps. All in informal arenas and centred about experiments, activities, and equipment in relation to lake ecology, but in different timespan. Project goals, in addition to the learning goal, include gaining new and improved knowledge about water quality and biodiversity, as well as making data gained available online by the participants or us, depending on the activity, so it can be viewed and used by all interested parties, including the public. Our presentation will focus on the experiences gained from engaging children and young people in a citizen science project in their spare time in an informal learning environment. We will share our thoughts and considerations as well as our experiences in relation to engagement and commitment of young participants, collaboration across disciplines, data collection, quality of data and knowledge dissemination.

KW - Citizen science

M3 - Poster

T2 - ECSA Conference 2022: Citizen Science for Planetary Health

Y2 - 5 October 2022 through 8 October 2022

ER -