MMSA’s Dr. Ruth Kermish-Allen and Alexandria Brasili recently presented their research findings from the WeatherBlur project at the NARST Annual Conference. NARST is a global organization of professionals committed to the improvement of science teaching and learning through research.
The presentation, titled “Weatherblur: Powering the Science Learning Process with Co-Created Citizen Science” was a part of the Environmental Education and Sustainability strand and presented along with other projects showcasing innovative approaches in environmental science education.
During their presentation, Kermish-Allen and Brasili described their study of understanding youth learning outcomes related to the scientific process after participation in WeatherBlur, a co-created variant of citizen science. They discussed the development of an innovative tool to capture student understanding of a nonlinear science process. This Science Process Instrument is an interactive and gamified pre-post intervention interview with manipulatives in which students are tasked with describing their approach to a mock science investigation.
Their findings included increases in students’ ability to explain the science process from before to after participating in the program. Factors influencing this increase were students’ participation in collaborative activities and communicating about their investigations in and out of the classroom.
