INTRODUCTION
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization on 11th of March 2020 (WHO 2020), several public health strategies have been adopted and applied in Australia, including restriction on international air travel, case isolation and home quarantine, social distancing and school closures (Chang et al. 2020). Several schools across the country temporarily closed whilst other schools were only open for children of essential workers. State governments encouraged parents to keep their children at home (NCRIS 2020). This resulted in educators from primary to tertiary sectors needing to transition to online learning. This transition to online learning significantly hindered delivery of science curriculum that depends on practical activities to facilitate learning.
Announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Queensland, Australia, caught Queensland University of Technology’s Allergy Research Group (QUT ARG) and Corinda State High School (CSHS) in the early stage of consideration of a joint scientific field activity. Whilst initially preparing to postpone the project until after the social lockdown measures had ceased, the idea was formed to restructure the project so that students could participate in a joint activity from home during lockdown and in a way that kept students engaged and able to undertake practical science learning. This led to the development of a small-scale citizen science project and educational modules using ‘real world’ research concepts and data to facilitate practical and online learning11 Citizen science refers to a process whereby volunteers from within the community are able to engage in scientific research through assisting in the collection of data and sharing information. These types of projects not only enable the community to engage in research, but also allow researchers to achieve their broader research goals (Silvertown 2009; Jordan et al. 2011). With the recent advancements in digital technology, there is now the potential for citizen science projects to recruit a larger number of volunteers across the world (Kobori et al. 2016) and there are an increasing number of freely available online tools for collecting and visualizing data (Silvertown 2009; Dickson, Zuckerberg & Bonter 2010). Access to these facilities coupled with the immediate need for online learning opened an opportunity for engaging secondary school students in interactive science learning activities while they were undertaking online school learning at home.
The ‘Grass Gazers’ citizen science project was designed by the QUT ARG for the purpose of grassland diversity and phenology research (Davies et al. 2015; Devadas et al. 2018). The project was developed by the academic research group and adapted by the CSHS agricultural science coordinator as a learning tool suitable for use by a group of junior high school agricultural science students. The adaptation allowed for examination of the potential for use of this citizen science tool to engage with students working from home whilst facilitating practical and online learning. It also provided an opportunity to develop an ongoing collaboration between tertiary researchers and secondary educators. The project used online tools to upload botanical and phenological data of grasses observed by students around their neighborhood or school surrounds within an urban environment. The students could then access and visualize all collected data for further educational purposes. This paper will reflect on the development, implementation, current social context, and outcomes of this project for the school students, including the collaboration’s challenges and benefits, how the project could be improved, and implications for future science learning in schools.