TY - JOUR

T1 - Improving attitudes and knowledge in a citizen science project about urban bat ecology

AU - Greving, Hannah

AU - Bruckermann, Till

AU - Schumann, Anke

AU - Straka, Tanja

AU - Lewanzik, Daniel

AU - Voigt-Heucke, Silke

AU - Marggraf, Lara

AU - Lorenz, Julia

AU - Brandt, Miriam

AU - Voigt, Christian C.

AU - Harms, Ute

AU - Kimmerle, Joachim

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under Grants [01|O1725, 01| O1727, 01|O1728]. The funding source was neither involved in the conducting of the research nor the preparation of the article.

PY - 2022/5/30

Y1 - 2022/5/30

N2 - In order to deal with the current, dramatic decline in biodiversity, the public at large needs to be aware of and participate in biodiversity research activities. One way to do this is citizen science projects, in which researchers collaborate with volunteering citizens in scientific research. However, it remains unclear whether engaging in such projects has an impact on the learning outcomes of volunteers. Previous research has so far presented mixed results on the improvement of citizens’ attitudes and knowledge, mostly because such research has focused only on single aspects of citizen science projects in case studies. To address these limitations, we investigated the impact of an urban bat ecology project on citizens’ attitudes and knowledge about bats, and on their engagement with citizen science. We also examined whether the degree of citizen participation (i.e., collecting data vs. collecting and analyzing data) had an influence on the outcomes. We conducted four field studies and used a survey-based, experimental, pre-/post-measurement design. To vary the degree of participation, we assessed the post measurement in one group directly after data collection, whereas, in a second group, we assessed it after data collection and analysis, at the end of the project. Across all studies, the results demonstrated that citizens’ content knowledge of urban bat ecology increased, and their attitudes toward bats and toward their engagement in citizen science improved during their participation. Citizens’ degrees of participation did not influence these outcomes. Thus, our research illustrates that citizen science can increase awareness of urban bat conservation, independently of citizens’ degree of participation. We discuss the implications of our findings for the citizen science community.

AB - In order to deal with the current, dramatic decline in biodiversity, the public at large needs to be aware of and participate in biodiversity research activities. One way to do this is citizen science projects, in which researchers collaborate with volunteering citizens in scientific research. However, it remains unclear whether engaging in such projects has an impact on the learning outcomes of volunteers. Previous research has so far presented mixed results on the improvement of citizens’ attitudes and knowledge, mostly because such research has focused only on single aspects of citizen science projects in case studies. To address these limitations, we investigated the impact of an urban bat ecology project on citizens’ attitudes and knowledge about bats, and on their engagement with citizen science. We also examined whether the degree of citizen participation (i.e., collecting data vs. collecting and analyzing data) had an influence on the outcomes. We conducted four field studies and used a survey-based, experimental, pre-/post-measurement design. To vary the degree of participation, we assessed the post measurement in one group directly after data collection, whereas, in a second group, we assessed it after data collection and analysis, at the end of the project. Across all studies, the results demonstrated that citizens’ content knowledge of urban bat ecology increased, and their attitudes toward bats and toward their engagement in citizen science improved during their participation. Citizens’ degrees of participation did not influence these outcomes. Thus, our research illustrates that citizen science can increase awareness of urban bat conservation, independently of citizens’ degree of participation. We discuss the implications of our findings for the citizen science community.

KW - attitudes

KW - bats

KW - citizen science

KW - content knowledge

KW - ecology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134406704&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5751/ES-13272-270224

DO - 10.5751/ES-13272-270224

M3 - Article

VL - 27

JO - Ecology and Society

JF - Ecology and Society

SN - 1708-3087

IS - 2

M1 - 24

ER -