Citizen Science programs have the potential to promote science literacy and environmental stewardship among the general public. These programs are often limited by technology that is expensive or difficult to use, data that is unreliable, or volunteers who lose interest. We investigated Citizen Scientist motivation, learning, and data quality in our Citizen Science program, Plant Stalkers. Plant Stalkers involves volunteers using handheld GPS units to map the distribution of invasive plants within a state park. This program offers a range of activities including a college-level service-learning course, summer internships, geocaching, and a two-tiered Citizen Science program (Tier 1 was designed primarily to promote science literacy, whereas Tier 2 was designed primarily to produce high-quality data). This range of activities supported volunteers who came to us with different interests and abilities, and allowed us to design a program that promotes science literacy and environmental stewardship while also facilitating the collection of high-quality data.
We examined three features to assess our program. First, we assessed various technologies (including a systematic comparison of Google Earth and ArcGIS) in order to find tools that were affordable and easy to use but could collect quality data for our research. Second, we surveyed volunteers to assess their motivation as well as the impact of our program on science literacy. Finally, we calculated the accuracy and reliability of data collected by our Tier 2 Citizen Scientists.
Results/Conclusions
Our preliminary results indicate that our program has been successful at achieving different goals for different groups of volunteers. Our approach may be of particular interest to other programs that draw from a diverse group of volunteers.
