As a part of ASTC’s Community Science Initiative, we have been maintaining a library of relevant resources for science center and museum professionals interested in community science. Community science is a way of working on issues at the intersection of science and society, which centers community priorities, strengths, and leadership to co-create solutions.
In many Community Science projects, data plays an important role in the way museums are engaging with their communities. This new batch of resources is about all things data – ethics, stewardship, visualization, and collaborative interpretation with communities. These resources are generally accessible to people who don’t have extensive experience or knowledge about these topics, and thus can help you build foundational skills in this area.
New Data Resources
Data Ethics in the Participatory Sciences Toolkit
This toolkit from the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences (AAPS) (formerly Citizen Science Association), can help project leaders clarify and integrate ethical thinking as it relates to data management and stewardship in their participatory science projects. As well as the toolkit itself, AAPS offers a range of resources and a virtual training to help you design projects and data management processes to best fulfill ethical obligations to participants, partners, scientists, and society as a whole.
Participatory data stewardship: A framework for involving people in the use of data
This framework was created by The Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent research institute working to ensure that benefits from data and AI are justly and equitably distributed and enhance individual and social wellbeing. This framework promotes data collection, storage, sharing, and use in ways that empower people to help inform, shape, and govern their own data. It draws on the “ladder of citizen participation”, originated by Sherry Arnstein, to categorize people’s levels of control and agency over their data, on a spectrum across Informing, Consulting, Involving, Collaborating, and Empowering.
The Data Visualization Design Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
This resource is a step-by-step data visualization guide for novices, with the goal of creating visualizations that aid in conversation and decision making. The guide walks you through the various decisions you will make when creating data visualizations, and includes embedded videos, tutorials, and free design tools. The information in this resource can be applied to a range of uses, including public-facing exhibits and programs and internal evaluation reports.
Data Walks: An Innovative Way to Share Data with Communities
Data Walks are a tool to facilitate community engagement with research findings. This “gallery walk” style exercise allows participants to share personal experiences and connect them to the data. This can lead to improved data literacy among participants, allow participants to define what role they want to play in enacting local change, and improve research quality by better contextualizing findings.
What’s next?
Keep an eye out for another new batch of resources at the end of this year. These resources will be focused on the theme of engaging youth in Community Science projects.
Be sure to check out our new Civic Engagement & Policymaking Toolkit and consider joining us for one of our upcoming webinars about civic engagement:
- Critical Preparations for Civic Engagement (November 21 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET) Learn how to set yourself up for success in civic engagement efforts, including using power mapping and risk registers.
- Finding Your Role in Civic Engagement (December 12 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 p.m. ET) Learn about the different roles science engagement organizations can play in collaborative civic engagement efforts.
If you’d like to stay informed about the Community Science Initiative, you can sign up for our mailing list and join our next Community Science Clinic to meet and discuss with like-minded professionals working on Community Science projects around the country.