Student cognition and motivation during the Classroom BirdWatch citizen science project

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Terry Morton Tomasek (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Catherine Matthews

Abstract: "The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the ways various stakeholders (CBW project developer/coordinator, elementary and middle school teachers, and 5th through 8th grade students) envisioned, implemented and engaged in the citizen science project, eBird/Classroom BirdWatch. A multiple case study mixed-methods research design was used to examine student engagement in the cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry as part of citizen science participation. Student engagement was described based on a sense of autonomy, competence, relatedness and intrinsic motivation. A goal of this study was to expand the taxonomy of differences between authentic scientific inquiry and simple inquiry to include those inquiry tasks associated with participation in citizen science by describing how students engaged in this type of science. This research study built upon the existing framework of cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry described by Chinn and Malhotra (2002). This research provides a systematic analysis of the scientific processes and related reasoning tasks associated with the citizen science project eBird and the corresponding curriculum Classroom BirdWatch. Data consisted of responses to surveys, focus group interviews, document analysis and individual interviews. I suggest that citizen science could be an additional form of classroom-based science inquiry that can promote more authentic features of scientific inquiry and engage students in meaningful ways."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2006
Keywords
stakeholders, CBW project developer, coordinator, elementary, middle school, teachers, science project, eBird/Classroom BirdWatch
Subjects
Science--Study and teaching (Elementary)
Science--Study and teaching--Activity programs

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