Engineering & Computer Science
Engineering-related citizen science projects often center around infrastructure systems, such as storm watching and transportation, which will help calculate risks and prevent environmental hazards. In these projects, citizen scientists are particularly called upon the improve their communities as well as contribute to the field of engineering. These hazard and prevention projects build upon environmental monitoring to include damage assessment, reporting natural disasters, and stormwater runoff monitoring, for example.
The University of Buffalo explored the role of citizen science in two undergraduate engineering courses. They wanted to find ways for students to directly interact with the scientific method and apply citizen science methodology in a formal educational setting. While citizen science has been explored in K-12 education, this endeavor allowed citizen science to be formally included in undergraduate curriculum and help improve STEM retention and sense of connection to STEM. These engineering courses used citizen science as an evaluation and data collection tool and introduce students to surveys, focus groups, and historical datasets.
Engineering-related citizen science projects often provides citizen scientists an interdisciplinary approach to the scientific method by introducing them to the the related fields of natural sciences, sustainability, and manufacturing, for example. While citizen science has been used to foster interest in STEM in children, it can also be used in higher education to continue to foster that interest in STEM, to increase knowledge retention, to introduce new skillsets in data collection and evaluation, and to foster a sense of community.
Computer Science
References
Esmaeilian, Behzad, et al. "Use of Citizen Science to Improve Student Experience in Engineering Design, Manufacturing and Sustainability Education." Procedia Manufacturing 26 (2018): 1361-1368.
Gharaibeh, Nasir, et al. “Potential of Citizen Science for Enhancing Infrastructure Monitoring Data and Decision-Support Models for Local Communities.” Risk Analysis, no. 0 (2019).
all engineering fields
computer science
robotics
programming
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- What is Citizen Science? Cari Kaurloto