Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project

Mientje Lüsse; Frauke Brockhage; Marco Beeken; Verena Pietzner

doi:10.29333/ejmste/12246

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Mientje Lüsse ¹ , Frauke Brockhage ² , Marco Beeken ² , Verena Pietzner ¹ ^*

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¹ University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GERMANY² University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, GERMANY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Citizen science has gained importance in recent years and revealed great potential, especially regarding science learning and environmental education. However, little is known about ways of supporting individual learning processes within citizen science. With this in mind, a home experiment set, the Nitrogen Box, was developed within a chemistry citizen science project on nitrogen pollution of water bodies. The aim of the box was primarily to deepen the subject matter and to sensitize the citizens to the topic. To gain deeper insights into the usability and added value of home experiments in a citizen science context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten citizens. Analysis of these interviews revealed that the nitrogen box contributed to a consolidation and deepening of knowledge of the nitrogen problem in Northwest Germany. Home experiment sets like Nitrogen Box can motivate and enable citizens to engage more deeply with the scientific topic in the future, to reflect on it and discuss it. We discuss how heterogeneity of the target group presents challenges for designing citizen science projects and provide recommendations for the future projects.

Keywords

adult education
citizen science
home experiments
nitrogen pollution
public participation in scientific research

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 18, Issue 8, August 2022, Article No: em2142

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

Publication date: 25 Jul 2022

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APA

Lüsse, M., Brockhage, F., Beeken, M., & Pietzner, V. (2022). Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(8), em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

Vancouver

Lüsse M, Brockhage F, Beeken M, Pietzner V. Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(8):em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

AMA

Lüsse M, Brockhage F, Beeken M, Pietzner V. Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(8), em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

Chicago

Lüsse, Mientje, Frauke Brockhage, Marco Beeken, and Verena Pietzner. "Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2022 18 no. 8 (2022): em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

Harvard

Lüsse, M., Brockhage, F., Beeken, M., and Pietzner, V. (2022). Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(8), em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246

MLA

Lüsse, Mientje et al. "Citizens’ views on home experiments in the context of a chemistry citizen science project". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 18, no. 8, 2022, em2142. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12246