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Citizen Science as an Educational Tool for Improving Scientific Literacy of Undergraduate Students

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Information Literacy: Key to an Inclusive Society (ECIL 2016)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 676))

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Abstract

The aim of my paper is to propose a new approach to support scientific literacy of undergraduate students that uses methods of active participation in scientific research. I introduce the concept of citizen science as scientific literacy. Based on the accessible literature review, I present the overall approach to the educational potential of citizen science, as well as the results of selected surveys conducted to measure the impact of citizen science projects to the participants’ scientific literacy level. I make the claim that even short-term projects may make great impact, although the subject definitely needs more research. In this paper, I also outline the possibility of using citizen science projects in the undergraduate curriculum.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Kristýna Kalmárová

Authors
  1. Kristýna Kalmárová
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Correspondence to Kristýna Kalmárová .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Serap Kurbanoğlu

  2. Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

    Joumana Boustany

  3. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sonja Špiranec

  4. University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, USA

    Esther Grassian

  5. University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, USA

    Diane Mizrachi

  6. University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

    Loriene Roy

  7. Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Tolga Çakmak

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Kalmárová, K. (2016). Citizen Science as an Educational Tool for Improving Scientific Literacy of Undergraduate Students. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., et al. Information Literacy: Key to an Inclusive Society. ECIL 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 676. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52162-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52162-6_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52161-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52162-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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