Combining formal education and citizen science: a case study on students’ perceptions of learning and interest in an urban rat project

Abstract

Citizen science is a valuable tool in environmental and formal education in creating scientific knowledge for the researchers and facilitating learning and fostering a positive relationship toward the environment and study species. We present a case study on the Helsinki Urban Rat Project in which students surveyed rat occurrence in their own near environments. According to our results, experientiality, involvement, meaningfulness, freedom to choose, ease of participation, and the rats themselves contributed to students’ increased interest in participation. Furthermore, students described diverse factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge that they acquired during their participation. In general, students described negative attitudes toward rats, but they less negative views on rats after participation. We reflect on the success of the citizen science project and implications of planning a future citizen science project and incorporating citizen science in formal education.

Keywords:

• Citizen science
• near environment
• urban ecology
• animal studies
• animal attitudes

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank participating schools, teachers and students and Nina V. Nygren and Pauliina Rautio for discussions on human-animal relations and Mary Lukkonen and Marlene Boemer on proof-reading the manuscript. T.A. has been funded by the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation and the City of Helsinki research grants. The authors report no potential conflict of interests.

Notes on contributors

Tuomas Aivelo

Tuomas Aivelo is a postdoctoral researcher in Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, University of Helsinki and coordinator of the Helsinki Urban Rat Project. Aivelo studies both ecology and evolution of animals, with an emphasis on parasites and is involved in biology education. He is also keen on science outreach and writes a popular blog on parasites in collaboration with biology and geography teachers in Finland.

Suvi Huovelin

Suvi Huovelin is a recently graduated biology and geography teacher in Helsinki, Finland. This article outlines the main findings of her Master of Science thesis.