NYCDOE Citizen Science Program LibGuide: Home

Welcome to the 2019-20 Citizen Science program!

The NYCDOE Department of STEM's Citizen Science program connects middle school teachers and students to ongoing Citizen Science 'research missions' with different science-focused partner organizations across New York City. Each research mission is based on a research question that a partner has developed, and that has both scientific validity, as well as a clear link to policy and to service-learning opportunities. The program is structured as an after-school club for 20-30 students that is co-led by two teachers, at least one of whom must be a science teacher. The 2019-20 Citizen Science program focuses on the theme of The Health of New York City’s Estuary Ecosystem, and clubs will examine the positive and negative impacts that human activity can have on an estuary ecosystem in a densely populated area.

Program Goals 

Through the Citizen Science project:

• students will be exposed to authentic, hands-on science issues and research;
• participating teachers’ pedagogical practices and content knowledge will be expanded; and
• teachers will learn strategies to integrate science research skills, Common Core performance expectations in mathematics (data collection and interpretation, patterns and functions, and statistical interpretation of data set(s)) and literacy (written and oral communication) into their club programming;
• teachers will explore ways to positively impact a local ecological issue through the planning and carrying out of a service learning project; and 
• teachers will gain understanding of the practices that are essential elements of quality K-12 math, science, engineering, and service-learning instruction.