Using a Citizen Science Approach to Integrate Authentic Research into a Large Enrollment Undergraduate Course

Incorporating research into undergraduate classrooms can foster positive student outcomes as well as benefit instructor research goals. However, instructors may be challenged to do so because designing and implementing course-based research can be costly, time-consuming, and logistically difficult, particularly for large-enrollment courses. With these constraints in mind, we describe the implementation of a course-based research project that leveraged a citizen science approach to ease incorporation into large enrollment first-year courses. The instructor of a large enrollment, first-year ecology and environmental sciences course designed a project to engage undergraduate students in real-world research investigating the impact of human-made ditches on saltmarsh sparrow (Ammospiza caudacuta) habitat from Maine to Virginia. Students used Google Earth Software (a free mapping tool that requires minimal training and no prior knowledge) to map ditches. Their contributions were incorporated into a geospatial dataset for the entire US Northeast that is being used for conservation. Importantly, the exercise exposed a large number of non-STEM students to ecological research and a local conservation challenge, thereby fostering science literacy among non-scientists.