Galaxy zoo: Science content knowledge of citizen scientists.

We report the results of a large-scale study of the state of science content knowledge of volunteers in Galaxy Zoo ( www.galaxyzoo.org ), an online citizen science project in which public volunteers classify galaxies in an effort to benefit cutting-edge astronomy research. We were interested in whether participating in Galaxy Zoo leads to any increase in participants' astrophysical content knowledge. To assess volunteer content knowledge, we examined the responses of 1476 Galaxy Zoo volunteers to 32 conceptually challenging multiple-choice questions. We looked for any relationships between participants' assessment scores and the number of galaxies classified upon answering the first assessment question, the number of galaxies classified between their first response and their final response to the assessment, and the length of time since they first created their Galaxy Zoo account. All relationships were of small effect size. These results suggest that participation in the project's central galaxy classification task, in and of itself, is not associated with increased astrophysical content knowledge. We strongly recommend that future studies of online citizen science environments examine how volunteers take advantage of opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills outside of the self-contained central task, especially in the context of opportunities for interactions with other volunteers.

Journey across the disciplines: a foundation for scientific communication in bioastronomy.

As an increasing number of fascinating discoveries within the realm of bioastronomy appear in media headlines, participating scientists continue to pursue ways of insuring the long-term success of the scientific discipline. In an effort to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, communication, and training for scientists involved in bioastronomy research, a team of scientists and science education professionals have developed a survey to assess (1) the degree to which scientists in bioastronomy define themselves as interdisciplinary scientists, (2) the extent to which scientists identify their needs for professional development opportunities to become more effective interdisciplinary collaborators, and (3) what services and infrastructure the bioastronomy community needs to develop for long-term productive interdisciplinary communication, collaboration, research and training. The results of a survey, distributed at the 2004 Astrobiology Science Conference (held at Moffett Field, CA), serve the bioastronomy science community by providing a sound research baseline that informs decisions and targeted efforts to increase cross-disciplinary communication, gathering information about needed professional development opportunities for scientists, and generating insights for training of the next generation of astrobiologists. Results indicate that members of the community feel that interdisciplinary communication and collaboration can best be supported by (1) increased funding opportunities, (2) scheduled time for collaboration at professional meetings, (3) reduction of concurrent sessions at professional meetings, and (4) creation of professional development opportunities for scientists.

An online astrobiology course for teachers.

A continuing challenge for scientists is to keep K-12 teachers informed about new scientific developments. Over the past few years, this challenge has increased as new research findings have come from the field of astrobiology. In addition to trying to keep abreast of these new discoveries, K-12 teachers must also face the demands of the content and pedagogical goals imposed by state and national science education standards. Furthermore, many teachers lack the scientific content knowledge or training in current teaching methods to create their own activities or to implement appropriately new teaching materials designed to meet the standards. There is a clear need for special courses designed to increase the scientific knowledge of K-12 science teachers. In response to this need, the authors developed a suite of innovative, classroom-ready lessons for grades 5-12 that emphasize an active engagement instructional strategy and focus on the recent discoveries in the field of astrobiology. They further created a graduate-level, Internet-based distance-learning course for teachers to help them become familiar with these astrobiology concepts and to gain firsthand experience with the National Science Education Standards-based instructional strategies.