BENEFITS
Having in mind that the collaboration between QUT ARG and CSHS was
established not long before the COVID-19 situation arose, communication
between parties was incredibly smooth including connecting by
videoconferencing to develop engagement plans, learning materials and an
online platform. This project therefore provided an opportunity to
establish and strengthen new relationships between individuals working
within these organizations that may underpin further activities and
projects.
Throughout the development of this project one of the anticipated
benefits was the opportunity the Agricultural Technology students were
given to enhance their knowledge about plant morphology and the
identification of plants (grasses) in a real-world context. However,
unexpectedly, through the process of developing learning modules for the
students, individuals from different disciplines within the QUT ARG
(mathematics, environmental chemistry) consolidated their own knowledge
about plant morphology and identification.
The QUT ARG team has been actively learning about topics relevant to new
aspects of the citizen science project, which were applied and tested.
The QUT ARG team gained valuable knowledge and insight on the
requirements and processes for school-university partnerships. The
project had the added benefit of providing early career researchers a
lived experience of communication and transfer of knowledge to junior
high school level.
The set of resources developed and refined in this collaborative project
will be used as a valuable teaching and learning material for future
projects. These learning resources will allow for expansion of this
project to extend citizen science involving other schools and community
groups. Working with the school community has increased awareness of
citizen science not only with students but also with their friends and
families. This can be an important forum for a broader public engagement
that will allow growth of awareness around the importance of grass
diversity, phenology and grass pollen, as an allergy trigger and
management of pollen allergies.
With this citizen science project students were given an opportunity for
a hands-on experience in grassland ecology field work and online data
entry to a digital platform while learning at home. The designed online
learning and practical activities have exposed students to real-world
science and likely facilitated a development of important scientific
skills in observation, critical thinking and analysis. Students had to
carefully observe features of grass, its flowers and leaves, decide on
type of flower, flower head, suggest the likely grass species, and
analyze generated data (Appendix). Learning approaches such as this are
proven to be effective in increasing student interest in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics careers (Hiller et al. 2015).
Citizen science projects like this one, can be considered as an
important initial step towards professional development of young
individuals.
A further collective benefit was that this project received coverage
from media outlets including a national television nightly news channel
as well as university and school media platforms (QUT ARG 2020). This
coverage provided positive attention to all partners involved, and
increased awareness of science to the community including the project
motivation and scope, as well as some of the health impacts of grass
pollen.
Although time to develop and implement the project was limited, this
facilitated the rapid evolution of the project because all individuals
involved had a heightened focused on making things happen. This
benefited all parties; the school teaching staff, university researchers
and school students, and above all, inspired the team to provide a
unique and much needed learning experience for students in difficult
times.