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2012 Autumn | Education & Outreach, Natural Science & Restoration

Citizen Science as an Educational Tool

Student(s):

Zoe Vrieling

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Dr. Julia Parrish

Partner(s):

  • Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST

Faculty advisor(s):

Dr. Marc Miller, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington

The greatest threat to any environmental issue is lack of knowledge. Citizen science is a great method of environmental education, as it allows for the general public to research and learn more about certain environmental issues. During my project, I looked at the citizen science program COASST and I assessed why people choose to volunteer and, then, why they continued to volunteer. With this data, I was able to pinpoint successes and problems of this program so that more citizen science programs could effectively be modeled after COASST and the subsequent lessons learned. The ultimate goal is to spread environmental education throughout the world, resulting in an environmentally-conscious society.