Assessing ecological understanding through a citizen science project

Citizen science experiences provide the general public with the opportunity to learn ecology in non-traditional settings.  There has been little assessment, however, on the extent of ecological learning through these opportunities.  We employed citizen scientists in a scientific study documenting the occurrence and habitat conditions of invasive plant species.  In this context, we studied ecological learning.  Specifically, we investigated the change in knowledge about plant invasions and related ecosystem concepts.  We also investigated participant views of scientific experimentation and evidence-based reasoning.  Finally, we assessed participant attitude toward ecologically oriented environmental problems and the role of science in providing solutions.  Data were collected through the use of questionnaires that combined Likert-type questions with open-ended responses.  Qualitative analysis followed standard methods of verbal data categorization.  While participants were initially limited in their foundational knowledge about ecosystems and plant invasions, we found them to be particularly motivated to find solutions to environmental problems.  The character of these solutions, however, could be predicted based on limitations of knowledge surrounding the nature of science.  Implications of these findings will be discussed with respect to future ecologically-oriented citizen science programs.