- [Announcer] IQ Smart Parent is made possible by The Grable Foundation.

- Kids are naturally curious, you might even say they were born to be scientist.

And that's what today's show is all about.

We will reveal ways to get your kids involved in real scientific research as citizen scientist from the everyday tools used to collect data, to finding research projects going on around the country.

We'll tell you what it takes to raise science minded kids who can start making important contributions to research right now.

That's all coming up on this edition of IQ Smart Parent, so stay with us.

(upbeat music) Welcome to IQ Smart Parent, I'm your host, Darieth Chisolm.

Today we're going to talk about a growing field called public participation in scientific research.

But most of you know it by the more common term citizen science.

Our guests are going to tell you what it is, how citizen science helps all of us, and how you can get your kids involved.

Our first guest is Doctor Andre Samuel, the President and CEO of the Citizen Science Lab in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Thanks for being here with us.

- Thanks for having me Darieth.

So let's start off by talking about what the Citizen Science Lab is and why you created it.

- Sure.

the Citizen Science Lab is a hands on laboratory for the inquisitive mind and the science enthusiast.

We were created and founded to fill the gap where, you know, public schools and charter schools just don't have the facilities to create hands on experimentation.

And we provide a facility that can provide that experimentation.

- [Darieth] So really giving kids the opportunity to get in and do it (laughs) yeah.

- Absolutely.

We really believe in learning through doing.

So there's not a lot of lecture, you come in, and you sit down and you get right down to the science of it.

- [Darieth] So let's define Citizen Science, what is it?

- Sure, so Citizen Science is a collaborative of citizens across the nation and across the globe, collecting scientific data to help make the world a better place.

- And they are in fact really making real contributions to research.

This isn't just playing around, this is real.

- Oh yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely.

(Darieth laughs) I mean, you know, we have people who are doing citizen science projects that involve the folding and unfolding of proteins.

We have citizen scientists that are working together to collect data on the puma and the mountain lion and the ranges and how they're migrating across the country.

It really is pretty vast.

And there usually is a subject matter that will interest any person on when it comes to citizen science.

- And what's the what's the importance of making it so vast and having so many people involved?

- Well, science is a collaborative effort.

It always has been and it always will be.

And so when you get that collaborative effort from people with a number of different skill sets, you have a number of different observations and therefore you have stronger data points that you can actually make a hypothesis on.

- Now, we're all about kids on this program.

- [Andre] Right.

- So do kids really make good scientist?

- Kids make excellent scientists.

A lot of people don't really realize it, but they are naturally inquisitive.

They love seeing scientific experiments, and they love exploring, and it sort of sets the springboard for them to know more and investigate more.

- So let's show how easy it is to do real science.

- Sure.

- You brought along some things for us to take a look at, if you can share that with us.

- Yeah.

So we have here a pH indicator that can be made at home.

And it can be made at home simply by boiling some red cabbage in a big pot of hot water, and then straining it, and then you get this nice purple solution here.

This purple solution is made by the pigment that's found inside.

What the pigment does is it reacts to acidic or basic environment.

And so if you add a solution, like typical household cleaners, baking soda or vinegar, you get a color change, and a color changes based on the pH.

- And this is really good for kids to see.

So if you'll show us.

- Sure, sure.

- Okay.

- So the first thing we'll do here is we'll take a household cleaner with bleach and we're gonna add it.

And well on, you see you have a nice color change here.

The next thing we're gonna do, and over time, this might even get a little bit yellowish, it's orange now.

And then here we're gonna add some baking soda.

Give it a good mix.

And you'll see that it's turning blue.

- And as you're doing this, which is great.

And you can certainly continue, what's the value in this in terms of how kids really understand this process?

- Well, so this is a great way to sort of introduce a common thing that we find in biology and the life sciences, which is the pH scale.

And then allowing them to investigate certain household items can help them understand the nature of the pH of these compounds.

And you know, you sort of get a foundation to go ahead and investigate further and see what's acidic, what's basic.

A lot of people don't realize that the water based solutions that we're taking into our body range on the pH scale, so from acidic to alkaline, and if you do too much of one or the other, it could be harmful, right?

- Absolutely.

- Acids bother your teeth and cause enamel breakdown.

Here we have regular water.

And so we'll put that in.

And so you'll see there's not much of a color change, right?

And that's because water is basic in nature, all right.

And then our final household item here is vinegar.

And vinegar is gonna make this a nice, pretty red and pink.

- [Darieth] Yeah.

- All right, and so you get what you get a rainbow of pH rainbow of solution.

- And this really helps children to even understand watersheds and how they are impacted.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- Exactly, and it's a great way to go ahead and test even some of the water from watersheds, mine drainage, you can take that water, you can add it to the solution and the solution will tell you whether or not it's basic or acidic.

- Why is it so important to raise children to be scientifically literate?

- That's a great question.

Science is all around us Darieth, it really is no matter what from, you know, the trees and the grass to the buses and the cars that we use, and the computers and the smartphones.

Having an understanding of how these items work, and a foundation in STEM, allows us to create the newer wonderful things that we have nowadays.

It allows us advancements in technologies and advancements in medical technologies.

The only way that we can get there is by having a strong foundation in science literacy.

- And so with so much of this going on, how can families determine a respectable evidence based science project be involved in?

- Wow, that's a good question.

There are a number of resources available.

I would examine opportunities that have usually a scientific competition at the end, or somewhere featured around the scientific competition, because what happens is it really encourages that student to investigate further and get deep into their research project.

But they also become competitive, and that competitive nature really helps with science because that's what science is all about.

Two there is some competition between scientists to get to, you know, the answer to a specific question quicker than others.

- What other activities are you doing at your.

- Ah, wow, at the Citizen Science Lab, we do a range of things.

So we teach genetic engineering experiments.

We have teams that compete in synthetic biology competitions that are international.

We do robotics in the form of Sea Perch, and then we do a lot of microbiology and life sciences, DNA sequencing and fingerprinting.

- Well, these are certainly some things that some students aren't learning in schools, so having this opportunity to be there really advances their understanding of science.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And what we found is we've been around for five years.

So we have students who came to us when they started high school with another major in mind, such as wanting to go to law school, or business and then have completely turned around and become science majors, and then now at universities across the country with science major.

- Yeah, and it certainly appears that this is vital and really important particularly for underserved populations, - Absolutely.

- And really giving a range of diversity opportunities.

- Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's, you know, minorities are really underrepresented in the sciences, and so we're women in the field.

And so we feel like it's our duty and our nature to make sure that those underserved populations get that exposure and become motivated to wanna pursue a science career.

- What's your advice to parents who say I'm not sure where to start or where to go or what to do, but I know I want my children to be more involved in the sciences.

- I would say just go out there and get them started, support it, even if you don't think they have an interest, if you can find a program that does true hands on interactive science, I can guarantee you nine times out of 10, that child is going to be interested in it.

- And if they don't have access to one nearby, things they might do at home.

Or from the internet.

- Sure things.

Yeah from the internet there are lots of resources, there's do it yourself science websites, there are a number of YouTube videos that have content that is very similar to this that actually teach our kids something rather than you know, sitting around and watching them opening up a new toy or something like that.

So I would encourage the internet as a resource for sure.

- And it's a great way that the entire family of course can be involved, not just the kids watching YouTube, but the parents.

- Right, absolutely.

- And dusting off our science (laughs) skills.

- Yes, yes, I mean, just last night when I was in the kitchen preparing this, my daughter and my wife crowded around, and they were like this is so cool.

You know, let me take pictures, let me take videos, and it was an opportunity to teach them about it.

- All right, great.

Well, you certainly brought great information for us to take part in and we appreciate it.

Thank you for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- Are you ready to see citizen scientists in action?

Check out these experts who rely on everyday people to help them protect one of our planet's most valuable resources, water.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Kids drink and use water every day.

They know it's necessary, but they may not know about the scientists working behind the scenes to make sure their water is safe.

- Making a connection from where your drinking water comes from, is super important to change, you know, behaviors of families as far as things that can affect the water quality.

- [Announcer] Jake Lemmon is a water quality expert at Trout Unlimited, a nonprofit that conserves fresh water streams and rivers.

He also trains and coordinates citizen scientists in the Mid-Atlantic region.

- If it gets a pretty big net, I'd say we at any given time, we're actively working with several hundred citizen scientists.

The beauty of citizen science is that expands the capacity of organizations to collect data.

You know, we're a group of, you know, maybe 250 staff members throughout the entire country, we have hundreds of citizen scientists just in this region, just collecting data that there's no way that we'd be able to collect otherwise.

- And today is the 23rd.

(upbeat music) - These programs are typically designed for the lay person with no prior background to go through some training and be able to collect quality and useful data.

And there's different opportunities across the wide spectrum, you know.

Some people collect water quality data, other people might just take a photo at a particular location on an ongoing basis and build a photo library.

- [Announcer] One analysis of citizen science show that can help drive public policy.

- 43 and a half.

- [Announcer] But citizen scientists also reported feeling motivated and empowered when they could take part in research that calls attention to their concerns.

- Some people that engage in our projects are retired scientists, but for the most part, they're just folks who love streams, love fishing, love being near streams, and they're looking for an excuse to do that while contributing to a good cause.

- It's like it's about 4.5 Jake.

- You don't really need to have that technical background to help out with most of our projects.

We provide training, we provide technical support, we provide the equipment.

Dave was collecting some basic stream-side water quality parameters, conductivity, total dissolved solids, water temperature, Ph.

He also did a stream cross section that we use as a measurement of flow.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Dave is just one of 1300 volunteers that Trout Unlimited trained to monitor possible water pollution from the natural gas industry.

So over the course of our Shale Gas Pipeline Monitoring work, our volunteers have collected about 8000 observations.

So that's 8000 trips to a stream like this to collect data.

And that's been done at, you know, five or 600 sites.

Without eyes and ears on the ground, we may not immediately we may miss something, you know, the agency is don't have the ability to comprehensively monitor every stream in the state, so having those boots on the ground is key to protect streams.

- [Announcer] Jake's own love of the outdoors is what led him to become a scientist.

- I grew up in Southern Indiana, and there was a small creek that flow behind my house, and I spent my summers out there, bass fishing, floating my kayak and that was just my playground.

And then went to college thinking I was gonna be a business guy, and didn't think that I liked science until I realized that science was something in a, you know, a textbook, it was something you do outdoors, in streams in the forest, and so I got into geology and environmental science in school.

Know with kids, one of the best things you can do is just get them in the stream.

Even streams that run through urban areas have life in them.

When you look at the surface of the water, you don't realize there's a whole community living underneath those rocks, and in that substrate.

That's a great thing that can engage kids, kind of light a little bit of a spark of interest, you know, in them as far as caring about streams and rivers.

The building of environmental stewardship is a great byproduct of citizen science.

But we're out there collecting data to be used for the programs designed for folks to identify pollution issues if they occur, and then report them to authority, the proper agency.

And we also oftentimes use the data to prioritize what we do in stream projects.

It not only helps us sort of fine tune our strategies, but it helps us go to funders and say, Hey, this is working, or, hey, this is an area that is really high priority, where work really needs to be done, and we have the data now to prove that.

This data is very critical to the mission.

If you aren't sure if you a citizen science, for you just know that there's opportunities for everyone.

There's, you know, with citizen science like you can definitely get in on some very easy sort of not time intensive type of work.

Or you can spend 40 hours a week being, you know, a citizen science volunteer.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Think of citizen science as crowdsourcing at its finest.

In fact, humans have been studying the skies and our planet since ancient times, observing patterns, gathering evidence and building scientific knowledge to move society forward.

Founding Father Thomas Jefferson even envisioned a network of citizens observing and reporting weather patterns.

He recruited volunteers in six days, an effort that eventually grew into today's Cooperative Weather Observer Network.

It draws one million volunteer hours annually at 12,000 sites across all 50 states.

(upbeat music) - 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and to recognize that milestone, three groups have teamed up to organize the world's largest coordinated citizen science campaign.

It's called Earth Challenge 2020, and it engages volunteers from around the globe to collect information about air and water quality, pollution, and human health.

With the help of citizen scientists, the campaigns goal is to collect more than one billion data points.

(upbeat music) Visit our website for more resources about citizen science, educational tools and apps you can use, and ways to search for research studies near you.

Right now I'd like to welcome our next guest, Sara Espinoza.

of the National Environmental Education Foundation.

Sara, thanks so much for being here.

- Happy to be here, thanks.

= Yeah, yes.

So as we continue this discussion, you are overseeing a citizen science program called Greening STEM.

Tell us more about it.

- Sure, yeah, so Greening STEM is an approach to STEM learning science, technology, engineering, math that really uses the environment and outdoor spaces to get kids interested in those subjects.

So we really focus on hands on place based learning, getting kids outside and actually collecting data, and doing investigations around real world issues in the places where they live.

- Which is really important as well.

And so how many of these programs do you have going on across the country?

- At any given time?

We have dozens of programs going on around the country.

And the really cool thing about it is because they're all very place based, those programs all have a different focus, they're all very unique.

- And so for some of the projects that you working on, give us an idea of the types of activities that the children are doing.

- Sure, I'll give you a couple of examples.

We've been working with the National Park Service for a few years to do projects on Park Service lands.

One example there is a project at Saguaro National Park in Arizona called Lost Carnivores, where kids have actually worked with the park to put up wildlife cameras and look for carnivore species that either haven't been seen in the park or have been scarce over the past several years.

So skunks, foxes, those kinds of animals.

- That has to be exciting for them.

- It is and they've actually been able to put cameras on their school property as well, and look to see if they're seeing some of the same animals there.

- Do you duplicate that in other areas or certain programs or projects only designated in certain regions.

- So they tend to be pretty localized, especially with the parks because they're focusing on issues that are really critical to that space.

So another example of that is Great Smoky Mountains National Park has had a long running program focused on the impact of ozone pollution on plants in the park.

So there that's a really critical issue and they kind engage youth and actually getting out and looking for ozone damage on leaves, and reporting back that data, that park managers can then use.

- What about in urban areas, what projects do you have going on?

- Sure, yeah, we've had a range of projects oftentimes focused on weather monitoring.

So there's good options out there to actually observe clouds and report data back to NASA to really easy option.

We also have seen a stream monitoring project, so actually getting out in the community, looking at water bodies that are nearby and being able to take samples and do some water quality testing.

- How do you make sure they're following the right method?

- Right, so we work with a lot of partners to be able to bring in experts who can interact with youth and really brief them on the projects, why they're doing the research, how to formulate good questions and hypotheses.

So that when they're going out in the field, they have a good grounding in what they're doing and how that scientific research works.

We also try to provide opportunities for kids to practice using tools and skills in the classroom before they go out into the field.

So for example, if they're taking temperatures or collecting air quality data, they've had a lot of time to get used to those tools and instruments that they'll be using and they're ready to roll when they're actually out in the field.

- Do you partner with certain companies or organizations to help make this available?

- Yeah.

So most of our partnerships are with public lands.

So Federal Public Land Agencies, National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, but also state and local agencies.

So we often engage the experts from those agencies and those places, so national parks US for us to get into schools and educational settings and engage with youth, and then actually get the youth out to those places as well.

- Well, you know, this certainly could be very fun for a lot of kids to be involved in, but long term, what do you see as this being the value for them?

- Sure, there is really long term value, a couple of things.

Actually, there's been some really recent research done, where researchers at the University of Illinois looked across a whole bunch of studies on nature and learning.

And they found that some of those longer term impacts are one that having an opportunity to get outside, to interact, encourages positive environmental behavior beyond just that experience.

And two, it provides some of those life skills, such as personal development skills, asking questions.

- Have you been able to track real scientific contributions with some of the children have been involved with?

- We have, so Great Smoky Mountains is a great example.

They have created these programs at the site where kids have been going out, looking at the impact of ozone on plants in the park, and documenting damage to plant species.

And those programs have been running for 13 or 14 years.

So they've been able to collect far more data than scientists could alone, and have created this data set that they can then use to look at trends from year to year and understand how air pollution is impacting the species in the park.

- Why is it important to raise kids to respect evidence based research?

- Yeah, so respecting evidence based research, understanding the scientific method really enables us to evaluate information and make good decisions.

So the core kind of critical thinking skills that come through the scientific method, asking questions, looking for data, making hypotheses, drawing conclusions are things that kids can certainly use in scientific inquiry, but they can also use it in all different areas of their lives to make decisions and evaluate information that they receive.

One of the things that's been really fascinating to me is how readily kids are able to draw connections between what they're doing in the field and their own communities in their own daily lives.

So one, they're often going home and talking to their families about what they're learning, which is a really great way to get parents interested and involved.

But two, they start to realize that the things they're doing in the field, whether it's looking for carnivores, or looking at damage on plants, can happen where they live as well, right?

So, you know, there's that parallel between what's happening at the park and what's actually happening in the field.

Oftentimes, there's also learning opportunities.

So why are we looking at this research?

For instance.

Why are we looking at damage on plants?

And what causes it?

And then how can I, as a student or a parent actually help solve that problem at home?

- And how do you encourage parents to be more involved with this?

- Sure, there's a few ways parents can get involved.

Certainly volunteering at schools, joining field trips.

We've heard from some of our partners that kids go home and they're really excited.

And suddenly parents are asking to come on the field trips because they've gotten interested in what the kids are doing.

But beyond that, there's plenty of opportunities to engage at home or on a smaller scale.

So there's lots of resources in apps out there that parents and caregivers can use to actually engage in some of these activities at home.

- It fascinating, great.

Well, we wanna thank you so much for being here with us.

- Sure, of course.

- Great information.

Thank you.

- Yeah.

- Our planet is facing serious threats, and it's going to take the best scientific minds to solve our problems.

We hope today's guests have inspired you to get involved and to raise your kids to be confident citizen scientists.

Thanks for being here, and we'll see you again next time for more IQ Smart Parent.

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