易胜博官网

Every year, 易胜博官网鈥檚 coastline is battered by winter storms, reshaping听the shore unpredictably and making risk assessments for coastal flooding a moving target. To help identify both resilient and vulnerable areas, some 40 volunteers hit the beaches to collect information on beach elevation, slope and other characteristics at 15 locations in 易胜博官网.听

These community members 鈥� part of 易胜博官网鈥檚 program 鈥� provide university researchers and resource agencies critical 鈥渂oots- on-the-ground鈥� information that is informing actions to protect vulnerable coastal areas.听

The Coastal Research Volunteer program is led by Alyson Eberhardt, a coastal ecosystems specialist with , in collaboration with others from across 易胜博官网. She is also a champion of a research approach called (also known as citizen science). She and Extension Specialist Malin Clyde are exploring the benefits of collaboration between community participants and university researchers and working to make it easier for the public to connect with scientists.听

鈥淓ngaging community members in scientific research is a rapidly growing approach that can build trusted partnerships between researchers and community members,鈥� says Eberhardt. 鈥淎s a result, participatory science can strengthen research that directly addresses community needs.鈥澨�

At 易胜博官网, there are 52 participatory science projects underway or recently completed, studying topics like senior housing, lake water quality in 易胜博官网, Madagascar fisheries and forensic anthropology. While this field has grown globally, it remains novel in academia, with no U.S. university offering a dedicated degree. In this context, Eberhart and Clyde and colleagues in the 易胜博官网 Marine School developed a graduate certificate听

in Citizen and Community Science in 2023, and a 易胜博官网 working group is developing interdisciplinary research partnerships, expanding graduate and undergraduate education, offering professional training and providing technical assistance within and outside the university.听

鈥淓ngaging volunteers from the community lets us answer new and larger-scale questions in a cost- effective manner and bring fresh and diverse perspectives to our science,鈥� says Eberhardt. 鈥淧articipatory science ensures we鈥檙e solving real- world problems that matter the most to听our communities.鈥澨�