“Why do we have to learn this?” I’m sure we’ve all heard this in our classes, and most students aren’t satisfied by answers such as You might need this information later in life or It’s an important part of science or It will be on the test (and rightfully so). Some students see the connections between the real world and what happens in class, but most will need some guidance to make these connections. By engaging in authentic activities, students have a chance to apply what they are learning to new situations, they can experience what scientists actually do, and many of their experiences could evolve into lifelong interests or career choices.
As an advocate for citizen science projects, I’m excited about NSTA’s partnership with SciStarters—you may have seen the promotion on the Science Scope site. SciStarters is a searchable collection of community-based and citizen-science projects–regional, national, and international. There are projects appropriate for all grade levels and on a variety of topics.
This issue features descriptions of several classroom-tested projects:

• Even if you don’t live in Boston, the site of the project described in Across the City and Across the Grades: Investigating Energy Flow in the Boston Harbor Ecosystem, the project can be an example of how local ecosystems (including urban ones) can become a learning environment. [SciLinks: Ecosystems]

• I spend a lot of time on the Delaware coast, and I often find bits of sea glass on the beach. These bits of glass from bottles get polished by the waves, although with the prevalence of plastic bottles, we’re finding less glass on the beach. So I was intrigued by Citizen Science: International Pellet Watch, a project based in Japan in which students collected resin pellets that wash ashore and send them to a lab for analysis as an indication of the presence of “persistent organic pollutants.” [SciLinks: Ocean Currents] This project exemplifies the type of collaborations described in Speaking of Science and the value of inviting speakers from the community to work with your students. This article has suggestions for working with community members, including brainstorming questions with students ahead of time, working with your administrators, and connecting the visit with the curriculum. The author also suggests taping the presentations to use with other classes. I’d add a suggestion about Skyping with these folks to take advantage of expertise beyond the community or to coordinate your schedules.

• Our students have a hard time disconnecting from electronic devices. The title Empowering Students to Investigate Their Energy Use with a Safe, Easy-to-Use, Low-Cost Electrical Energy Meter has three descriptors that teachers like to hear, and the author is true to his word. The real research that students do with a lost-cost meter could help the school and their families to save money. (And you’ll have to read the article to see what vampires have to do with the project.) The authors of Energy Monitoring: Powerful Connections Between Math, Science, and Community describe an activity in which students monitor electricity use in the home and analyze the data to find trends or patterns. They provide several graphs of electrical use—even if you can’t do the activity, the graphs tell a story that can spark class discussions. [SciLinks: Current Electricity]

• Connecting to Your Community Through Birds and Citizen Science updates us on the pioneering projects from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, such as e-Bird and Bird Sleuth, with examples from middle school classrooms. The author of Turtle Conservation and Citizen Science shows how students can connect with local efforts in studying populations of living things and their reactions to invasive species. [SciLinks: Bird Characteristics, Bird Adaptations, Herpetology, Reptiles]

• Environmental Decision Making in Our Backyard has a variation of a simulation on predator-prey relationships and the impact of habitat change and invasive (or nonnative) species. [SciLinks: Food Chains and Food Webs, Invasive Species, Predator/Prey]

“Community-Based Science” was also the theme of the March 2010 issue of Science Scope. Find more ideas here.