Full text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2022. This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

In order to deal with the current, dramatic decline in biodiversity, the public at large needs to be aware of and participate in biodiversity research activities. One way to do this is citizen science projects, in which researchers collaborate with volunteering citizens in scientific research. However, it remains unclear whether engaging in such projects has an impact on the learning outcomes of volunteers. Previous research has so far presented mixed results on the improvement of citizens’ attitudes and knowledge, mostly because such research has focused only on single aspects of citizen science projects in case studies. To address these limitations, we investigated the impact of an urban bat ecology project on citizens’ attitudes and knowledge about bats, and on their engagement with citizen science. We also examined whether the degree of citizen participation (i.e., collecting data vs. collecting and analyzing data) had an influence on the outcomes. We conducted four field studies and used a survey-based, experimental, pre-/post-measurement design. To vary the degree of participation, we assessed the post measurement in one group directly after data collection, whereas, in a second group, we assessed it after data collection and analysis, at the end of the project. Across all studies, the results demonstrated that citizens’ content knowledge of urban bat ecology increased, and their attitudes toward bats and toward their engagement in citizen science improved during their participation. Citizens’ degrees of participation did not influence these outcomes. Thus, our research illustrates that citizen science can increase awareness of urban bat conservation, independently of citizens’ degree of participation. We discuss the implications of our findings for the citizen science community.

Details

Title
Improving attitudes and knowledge in a citizen science project about urban bat ecology
Author
Greving, Hannah  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bruckermann, Till  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Schumann, Anke; Straka, Tanja M  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lewanzik, Daniel  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Voigt-Heucke, Silke L  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marggraf, Lara  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lorenz, Julia; Brandt, Miriam  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Voigt, Christian C; Harms, Ute  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kimmerle, Joachim  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
Section
Research
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Jun 2022
Publisher
Resilience Alliance
e-ISSN
17083087
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3108267498
Copyright
© 2022. This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.