Scientific Value and Educational Goals: Balancing Priorities and Increasing Adult Engagement in a Citizen Science Project

The Lost Ladybug Project is a citizen science project that engages individuals and groups in research and learning about ladybug population dynamics. With a dual purpose of advancing scientists’ research about ladybug populations and achieving learning outcomes with participants, the project's summative evaluation led to critical reflection on the complementary and contradictory priorities within these goals. This article presents and discusses the scientific value of citizen scientists in this project, results of summative evaluation of outcome achievement with adult participants, and the implications to project efforts to transition adult participants from basic contributors to more deeply engaged citizen scientists.