Are you looking for exciting ways to engage your students in science? Have you wished you could teach science outdoors? Do you want quality, standards-aligned support materials created in collaboration with fellow teachers that help you integrate authentic science into your classroom? Then NSF School-Based Participatory Science is for you!

What is Participatory Science?

Participatory science is a partnership between the public and professional scientists to answer scientific questions together. Often called citizen science or community science, participatory science projects use a highly collaborative approach to science that invites everyone to participate in the research with at least one professional scientist ensuring accurate data collection and high-quality results. Project participants are an essential part of this type of science and generate new information that contributes to real scientific research efforts. In fact, the work often cannot be done at all without project participants! They make it possible to collect data at very large spatial and temporal scales. Participatory science projects have a great track record of producing high-quality results while inviting everyone, regardless of their level of prior experience with science, to participate in authentic scientific research.

What is School-Based Participatory Science?

School-Based Participatory Science (SBPS) is simply participatory science that takes place in K-12 schools, where students collect and report data. Incorporating participatory science projects into the classroom offers students an opportunity to authentically participate in science. They are able to collect and analyze data that are relevant to them and their local communities while also sharing what they discover with real scientists who use their data to advance our understanding of our world. We have created web-based materials that will help teachers you incorporate two participatory science projects into their your instruction: the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) project (focused on weather and precipitation), and the Ladybugs at School project (focused on ecosystems and biodiversity). We have also created resources for participatory science project leaders who want to involve teachers and their students as part of their science instruction. We know from our work that this is a great approach to doing science in K-12 classrooms, but don’t take our word for it!  Teachers involved in our project had this to say:

“Every morning, students are excited to check the rain gauge!”

“Students enjoy the responsibility of going outside to collect data.”

“All of the data analysis that you can do with CoCoRaHS is going to be so important with these new standards because there is so much data analysis (graphing, tracking, and comparing things) that the kids will have to do.”

“My students developed an obsession with ladybugs, and it has been so cool to see their excitement.”

What can I find on this site?

Our site is divided into four sections (see the menus at the top of the page). Two sections contain the resources we’ve created for CoCoRaHS and Ladybugs at School. Each contains a suggested yearlong sequence of lessons (one per month) aligned with the project to support your planning. The resources are flexibly designed for you to use as you see fit and as a complement to what you’re already teaching in your classroom, not as a replacement. The materials include monthly activities to keep your students engaged in the projects throughout the school year, guidance on collecting high-quality data for scientists, supports for interdisciplinary connections, media resources to use with students, content sources for deepening your own understanding, and examples of how this might look in practice.

A third section houses resources for those who create, lead, or manage participatory science projects. These resources will help determine if a project is suitable for school-based participatory science and offer practical guidance for creating resources to support teachers who want to incorporate a project in their instruction. 

A final section includes all the publications that have resulted from our work.

What’s the difference between this website, CoCoRaHS, and the Ladybugs at School project?

CoCoRaHS and the Ladybugs at School project are participatory science projects that are independent from this website. Each has their own website where all participants will enter and access data, and their resources are aimed largely at non-school participants. The SBPS website offers additional materials for each of these projects beyond what is available on the CoCoRaHS and Ladybugs at School project websites, designed specifically with teachers and students in mind. Our team worked with current teachers every step of the way to ensure that our materials provide what you need to get started in either project!