Talk:Citizen science

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hello,

I would like to suggest to edit the page to:

"Some programs provide materials specifically for use by primary or secondary school students. As such, citizen science is one approach to [both, formal and] informal science education.

Note that it is contradictory to state citizen science is an approach to informal science education, right after stating that some programs provide materials specifically for use by primary or secondary school students.

Unless what one really wanted to say is that citizen science is informal science. But that isn't the case either because there are high qualified scientists behind data gathering and analysis across the world.

My suggestion is to highlight that citizen science encompasses both dimensions, formal and informal in both domains, science and science education.

I hope this is a useful contribution.

It is after all, a nice article with great external references.

Fsoares67 (talk) 17:14, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Do you have citable sources for these thoughts? Wikipedia cannot use "original research", no matter how valid it might be. --Orlady (talk) 18:55, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean a source for considering school education formal education? That's as commonsense as it is considering informal education what doesn't go on in schools. In regards to high qualified scientists, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology cited in the article is a good example, but I would like also to suggest WorldBirds plus the plethora of research studies supported by EarthWatch.

There is no source to state citizen science is an approach to informal science education either in the article. Please, clarify what conjecture source you refer too.

Please, clarify —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fsoares67 (talk • contribs) 19:03, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Excuse me I'm new to Wikipedia. I'm going to organize my sources and come back. I am affectionate to citizen science and that is actually the research topic of my dissertation. That's why I though I could contribute. Narrowing citizen science to an approach to informal science education is flat wrong, though. I have a short review of projects aimed to K-12 education. It couldn't get more formal than that. Posting sources as soon as possible. Fsoares67 19:23, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Thus far I was unable to contact the author, and I suspect the review has not been published. Nevertheless, I strongly suggest to not limit the concept of Citizen Science to informal science education. It is also a pedagocial approach to increase scientific literacy among students, thus playing an important role in formal science education.-- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fsoares67 (talk • contribs) 14:26, 8 February 2008 (UTC)