Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods
This article reports on an interdisciplinary evaluation of the pilot phase of a community-driven civic science project. The project investigates the distribution of heavy metals in air pollution using moss growing on street trees as a bio-indicator in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle...
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doaj-cd6c82b7cbe74fd5be31b00bfa6ad5982020-11-25T02:45:15ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health1661-78271660-46012020-10-01177278727810.3390/ijerph17197278Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent NeighborhoodsMonika M. Derrien0Christopher Zuidema1Sarah Jovan2Amanda Bidwell3Weston Brinkley4Paulina López5Roseann Barnhill6Dale J. Blahna7United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA 98103, USADepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA 98195, USAUnited States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR 97205, USAAmanda L Bidwell, LLC, Seattle, WA 98102, USAStreet Sounds Ecology, LLC, Seattle, WA 98117, USADuwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, Seattle, WA 98108, USADuwamish Infrastructure and Restoration Training Corps, Seattle, WA 98115, USAUnited States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA 98103, USAThis article reports on an interdisciplinary evaluation of the pilot phase of a community-driven civic science project. The project investigates the distribution of heavy metals in air pollution using moss growing on street trees as a bio-indicator in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington (USA). One goal of the ongoing project is to meaningfully engage local urban youths (eighth to twelfth grade) in the scientific process as civic scientists, and teach them about environmental health, environmental justice, and urban forestry concepts in a place-based, urban-oriented environmental research project. We describe the collaborative context in which our project developed, evaluate the quality of youth-collected data through analysis of replicate samples, and assess participants’ learning, career interests, and overall appraisal of the pilot. Our results indicate that youth scientists collected usable samples (with acceptable precision among repeated samples), learned project content (with statistically significant increases in scores of test-style survey questions; <i>p</i> = 0.002), and appraised their engagement favorably (with 69% of participants reporting they liked the project). We observed few changes in career interests, however. We discuss our intention to use these preliminary insights to further our community-driven education, research, and action model to address environmental injustices.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7278environmental justiceair pollutionmoss bio-indicatorscitizen scienceyouthcommunity engagement |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Monika M. Derrien Christopher Zuidema Sarah Jovan Amanda Bidwell Weston Brinkley Paulina López Roseann Barnhill Dale J. Blahna |
spellingShingle |
Monika M. Derrien Christopher Zuidema Sarah Jovan Amanda Bidwell Weston Brinkley Paulina López Roseann Barnhill Dale J. Blahna Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health environmental justice air pollution moss bio-indicators citizen science youth community engagement |
author_facet |
Monika M. Derrien Christopher Zuidema Sarah Jovan Amanda Bidwell Weston Brinkley Paulina López Roseann Barnhill Dale J. Blahna |
author_sort |
Monika M. Derrien |
title |
Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods |
title_short |
Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods |
title_full |
Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods |
title_fullStr |
Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods |
title_sort |
toward environmental justice in civic science: youth performance and experience measuring air pollution using moss as a bio-indicator in industrial-adjacent neighborhoods |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
issn |
1661-7827 1660-4601 |
publishDate |
2020-10-01 |
description |
This article reports on an interdisciplinary evaluation of the pilot phase of a community-driven civic science project. The project investigates the distribution of heavy metals in air pollution using moss growing on street trees as a bio-indicator in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington (USA). One goal of the ongoing project is to meaningfully engage local urban youths (eighth to twelfth grade) in the scientific process as civic scientists, and teach them about environmental health, environmental justice, and urban forestry concepts in a place-based, urban-oriented environmental research project. We describe the collaborative context in which our project developed, evaluate the quality of youth-collected data through analysis of replicate samples, and assess participants’ learning, career interests, and overall appraisal of the pilot. Our results indicate that youth scientists collected usable samples (with acceptable precision among repeated samples), learned project content (with statistically significant increases in scores of test-style survey questions; <i>p</i> = 0.002), and appraised their engagement favorably (with 69% of participants reporting they liked the project). We observed few changes in career interests, however. We discuss our intention to use these preliminary insights to further our community-driven education, research, and action model to address environmental injustices. |
topic |
environmental justice air pollution moss bio-indicators citizen science youth community engagement |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7278 |
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