ABSTRACT
Citizen science, also commonly referred to as public participation in scientific research, community science, and volunteer monitoring engages the public in authentic scientific research through intentional collaboration with professional scientists. Citizen science has the potential to engage participants in all aspects of the scientific process, thereby providing an authentic context for public engagement and collaboration with science. Citizen science has evolved to encompass many different forms of engagement, from top-down scientist driven contributory projects to bottom-up, community-based driven initiatives. Increasingly, citizen science also provides learning opportunities through digital engagement. Research on the learning outcomes and processes that participants engage in through citizen science, while rapidly increasing in scope and depth, is still in its infancy. We encourage the informal science education field to continue to explore emerging areas of research in order to unlock the important contributions that well-designed citizen science learning contexts can offer the informal science learning community.
