Team Name:
Team Banico
Team Members:
Team Banico
Citizen Science is when the public voluntarily help conduct scientific research, and share results to organisations and the public. It's also a great way to get the youth engaged with the local community and the environment!
JESSICA stands for Junior Environmental Science Student Information and Collaboration App, and it is both a tool and a community to encourage in the participation of Citizen Science, engaging students with their local community and environmental organisations.
For example, schools and organisations can host activities in JESSICA such as:
- being weed warriors in NT, to learn about, and help in, the fight against Gamba Grass
- contribute to koala research in QLD
- finding and identifying rare species, such as the jewel beetle, in ACT
- study water quality and its effect on flora and fauna in Gippsland Lakes
By reading and posting content/media in JESSICA, they also get to practice valuable work skills such as research, observation, analysis, communication, and presentation skills. They also get to interact with the local environment industry and its professionals, and maybe encourage them to pursue a STEM career!
JESSICA, through its Geo Data Index, aggregates vast scientific data available in various repositories and transforms them into a standard format, making them accessible to the general public, by presenting relevant local data in close proximity.
For this project, we used Scratch as a prototyping tool. It is used by primary school kids to create interactive stories, animation, and games. For this hack, we used Scratch as a prototyping tool to conduct tests.
There are vast amounts of scientific data that are open and available for use. The challenge has always been how to encourage the use of this data not just by the scientific community and professionals/experts, but also by the general public (who normally don't have data science skills).
The key to addressing this is to create an index that serves as a bridge between vast scientific data (such as the data sets we have linked to this hack) and the general public. Just like the Google Search index, entries in JESSICA Geo Data Index reference external data sources. Its records are in a standard format: geolocation, category (or tag), datasource name, and external ID.
JESSICA is location-based, and content that is viewed/posted (with geolocation) will also be presented with relevant local data (using similar tags) in close proximity.
Description of Use JESSICA users in Canberra/ACT can link to data found in 'Threatened Plants' to supplement their content.
Description of Use JESSICA users in Canberra/ACT can link to data found in 'Threatened Aquatic Habitat' to supplement their content.
Description of Use We referred to 'Design My Career' / 'My Career Exploration' plan for suggestions on activities for learning about employability skills, as well as how to use industry excursion field trips to expose students to the environmental science industry.
Description of Use JESSICA users in Moreton Bay can link to Koala monitoring locations data to supplement their content.
Description of Use We used the Positive Start school camps map to find camps near Lake Wellington that involve environmental awareness activities.
Description of Use We found this story inspiring. Queensland high school students and Griffith’s School of Environment and Science collaborating together to map koala movements and their 'family trees'. Image was also used for our mock screenshot.
Description of Use JESSICA users in NT can refer to Gamba Grass information to support their content. Image was also used for our mock screenshot.
Description of Use An insect image was used for our mock screenshot.
Description of Use This story is inspirational and encouraging for the pursuit of citizen science among our youth.
Description of Use This teaching resource helps us understand how weed knowledge education is conducted in schools in Australia.
Description of Use Weed survey locations will be helpful to guide students to find suitable spots for their weed warrior activities.
Description of Use This study on how to engage children as active environmental education researchers is helpful in giving us ideas on the use cases for our app.
Description of Use We found this video inspiring. It is of local pupils working with marine scientists to study the effects of dredging in Otago Harbour. Video frame was also used for our mock screenshot.
Description of Use JESSICA users in Canberra/ACT can link to data found in 'Threatened Fauna Habitat' to supplement their content.
Description of Use JESSICA users in Canberra/ACT can link to media found in 'Canberra Nature Map' to supplement their content.
Description of Use We used the 'Gippsland Lakes Environment Report' as our starting point to learn about the Gippsland Lakes.
Description of Use We used the 'EPA Victoria Water Quality Report Card' to find any highlight/lowlight that can serve as a starting point of interest for environmental research.
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