Children’s environmental citizen science: engagement, experiences and outcomes

Millions of people across the world contribute to citizen science, defined as the engagement of the public in research under the direction of, or in collaboration with, a knowledgeable actor(s). Despite a growing body of literature on citizen science, children as participants are often overlooked, as well as stakeholders’ perceptions of the role children can potentially play in citizen science. Stakeholders are individuals and organisations who facilitate or fund a citizen science project or use the data produced. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the engagement, experiences and outcomes of children’s environmental citizen science, by capturing the voices of stakeholders, educators and children. This thesis used a sequential mixed methods approach, in which qualitative and quantitative research was conducted across three phases of study. First, stakeholders' motivations for and outcomes of supporting environmental citizen science and their perceptions of engaging children were examined through interviews. The stakeholders were motivated to support citizen science for scientific, environmental, personal, participant-driven and business-centric reasons, which appeared to be fulfilled when outcomes were discussed. The interviewees were generally supportive of children’s engagement in citizen science, although they acknowledged that the increased level of involvement in different aspects of science (e.g. co-created projects) would primarily be for education, not research. Analysis of stakeholders' perceptions of the learning outcomes children could gain from participation led to the creation of a framework that captures potential individual and societal benefits. This framework could be used to direct future research and inform the goals of citizen science projects. Second, formal educators’ experiences and perceptions of environmental citizen science as an educational tool were explored using online surveys. There was a relatively even split between respondents working in primary schools (46.3%) and ...