Citizen Science: Engaging the Community,

Impacting Decision Makers

Trudy Dunham, University of Minnesota Jay Staker, Iowa State University

December 6 2013

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Integrating knowledge with power to make science useful!

HOW IS THIS RELATED TO CITIZEN SCIENCE?

We are your constituents, can vouch for the scientific process and speak from experience!

DIALOGUE, TRUST, RESPECT: BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL

Decision Citizen Makers Scientists

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION & DECISION MAKING RESEARCH

Study of 4-H STEM Curriculum

• Q: Is Curriculum A or B more effective at engaging youth & promoting STEM learning?

• Findings: – A: 200 youth engaged & learning, 100 not – B: 80 youth engaged & learning, 20 not

• Which STEM Curriculum is more likely to engage youth and promote STEM Learning ?

Study of 4-H STEM Ability

• Q: Which state model of 4-H STEM programming, Iowa or Minnesota, is more effective?

• Findings: – IA Model: 200 youth “above average”, 100 below – MN Model: 80 youth “above average”, 20 below

• Which state 4-H program model was more

effective in building STEM skills?

“Motivated Numeracy”

• The influence of your prior-held opinion on your reasoning

• When an Issue is an important symbol of membership or loyalty to one’s affinity group, then one is likely to interpret information to support beliefs of that group, rather than the positions best supported by the evidence

Kahan, Peters, Dawson, & Slovic 2013

Cooperate for Long Term Good?

• Will the group cooperate to contribute sufficient funds to achieve goal?

• If yes, ‘rewarded’: – Condition 1: $ after 1 day delay – Condition 2: $ after 7 week delay – Condition 3: $ go to address issue

• When are we willing to cooperate? delay self-gratification?

• Which Conditions met goal?

Need Benefit to Cooperate

• Intergenerational discounting leads to a marked decrease in cooperation

• Intragenerational discounting is weaker • Unlikely to succeed if individual short-term

gains can arise only from not cooperating Jacquet, Hagel, Hauert, Marotzke, Rohl & Milinski, 2013

What Might Happen: Communicating Risk & Uncertainty

• Translating science facts to mental representation easier if provide gist

• Uncertainty in findings gets interpreted as not knowing, unreliable, scary

• Reframe it: – Do we know enough? – Best decision based on the info we have? – Use the issue to build social capital?

OTHER RESOURCES TO ADDRESS OUR ROLE AND THE PROCESS

Framing

• "The way in which the world is imagined determines at any particular moment what men will do.“

Walter Lippmann • "People approach the world …as experienced and

sophisticated veterans of perception who have stored their prior experiences as an organized mass. This prior experience then takes the form of expectations about the world, and in the vast majority of cases, the world, being a systematic place, confirms these expectations, saving the individual the trouble of figuring things out anew all the time." Deborah Tannen

Framing

• Core questions: – How do we get people to think about our issues? – How do we get them to think about our issues in

such a way that they want to solve them through public policies, not only individual actions?

• The use of the episodic frame attributes responsibility to the individual, the thematic frame to the public or society at large

Social Capital

• Social networks have value • Opportunities to gather, exchange ideas,

discuss • Connections among people increase

productivity, benefits, the working of society • “Community engagement spiral” is the model

to engage communities, involve citizens and our expectation of citizen science Vaughan, 2007

Kinds of Citizens

Role of Extension as Public Intellectual

• Someone who deals with ideas and knowledge within the context of public discourse, usually within mass media

• “…no scholar, historian or anyone else is — merely by being a scholar — ethically excused from their own circumstances. We are also participants in our own time and place and cannot retreat from it…” Tony Judt

Langcuster & Adrian, 2013

21st Century Skill: Global Awareness

• Frame-shifting in intercultural contexts • Examine our assumptions and the ways in

which we come to conclusions • Inform our thinking by helping us see the

world in all its complexities • Help us recognize that the standards and

values we use in our own life should not be imposed on others

What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

A Couple Red Flags

• You find yourself thinking, ‘Why can’t they see? It’s so obvious?’

• You find yourself thinking ‘That guy just isn’t making any sense’

• You can’t come up with a reasonable answer to the question ‘What would it take to change my views?’

• When someone challenges your decision, you say ‘I just think ….’

Citizen Science: More than Science

• Science is useful; communicate it so it can be used!

• Engage with decision makers and community, build social capital, learn how they think

• Look for red flags and stories: how can I get them to think about, want to solve our issue through public action?

• Citizenship as more than personal responsibility

References

• Craven (2009). What’s the worst that could happen? A rational response to the climate change debate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Craven_(teacher)

• The Frameworks Institute (2005). Framing public issues toolkit. http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/ • Innocent (2013). Making Sense of Uncertainty http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/07/22/making-

sense-of-uncertainty-sense-about-science/ • Jacquet, J., K. Hagel, C. Hauert, J. Marotzke, T. Röhl & M. Milinski (in press) Intra- and inter-generational

discounting in the climate game. Nature Climate Change. http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n12/full/nclimate2024.html

• Kahan, Peters, Dawson & Slovic. (Sept 2013). Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government. Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 307. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319992

• Karrer, Beldia, Dennison, Dominici, Dutra, English, Gunawan, Hastings, katz, Kelty, McField, Nunez, Obura, Ortiz, Quesada, Sivo, Stone (2011). Science-to-Action Guidebook. http://www.science2action.org/index.php?id=159&option=com_content&view=article

• Reyna (2013). Risk Communication and Risky Decision Making: From Viruses to Vaccines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZwGx5DQQpc

• Vaughan (2007) Citizen science as a catalyst in bridging the gap between science and decision-makers. Citizen Science Toolkit Conference. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/conference/proceeding-pdfs/Vaughan%202007%20CS%20Conference.pdf

• Westheimer & Kahne ( Summer 2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal 41 (2). http://democraticdialogue.com/DDpdfs/WhatKindOfCitizenAERJ.pdf