Training Climate and Weather Citizen Scientists: Investigating How Students Learn by Rescuing Historical Weather Data
2018 Mini-grant Project
This project develops a unique, Montreal-specific citizen science curriculum and is looking to expand it to include new post-secondary institutions. Our curriculum furthers students’ understanding of weather, climate, and their related social impacts. We integrate the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca/) website with student research assignments. The curriculum thus engages students with hands-on experience in data analysis using the …
This project develops a unique, Montreal-specific citizen science curriculum and is looking to expand it to include new post-secondary institutions. Our curriculum furthers students’ understanding of weather, climate, and their related social impacts. We integrate the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca/) website with student research assignments. The curriculum thus engages students with hands-on experience in data analysis using the data they rescued using the website and links this data to cultural and scientific aspects of Montreal’s heritage.
Through public outreach and citizen science, DRAW involves the Montreal public in the collection and transcription of weather information recorded between 1871 to 1964 in logbooks from the former McGill University Observatory. DRAW in itself constitutes an interdisciplinary effort with researchers from McGill University’s Faculties of Arts, Science and Education, and in partnership with the McGill University Archives.
We first piloted and evaluated DRAW’s CEGEP curriculum in March and April of 2018 at Dawson College in the first year Social Science Research Methods course. The three-week curriculum focused on introducing students to citizen science generally, citizen science in environment and climate based fields and finally the importance of the transcription of historical weather data. We then asked the students to link the historical weather they rescued through the citizen science transcription with contemporary social conditions or events. The course’s main assignment required students to conduct their own research on the time period for which they transcribed data with DRAW by examining how the physical environment, as exemplified by the weather, related to human social, political and cultural processes. After transcribing one (or more) pages on the DRAW website, students referred to online digital and McGill University microfilm resources to investigate the social consequences of climatic or weather events in historical newspaper accounts, photos, texts and other primary sources from the time period. This helped them benefit from undertaking original social science research methods in fields that include historical climate science, archival research, analysis of original source material and data transcription.
In expanding our program to additional post-secondary institutions in Quebec, we are developing a second curriculum to include in our curricula book being developed as part of this project. Our first curriculum (piloted in Winter Term 2018) utilized archival resources to investigate human social, political, and cultural events in relation to weather archives. Our new curriculum will focus on uses of energy and their relationship to weather and climate.
The plan will be to integrate this three-week module into the Environmental Issues course at Dawson College for the winter 2019 semester. A major focus of the course is the history of energy use, and students will develop a project where they will compare the energy system in late 19th century Montreal with the energy system today. Students will use DRAW data to compare atmospheric conditions from both time periods, and to make connections between energy use, socioeconomic conditions, and public health.
Our new employees, Candice Cartier and Isabelle Mayer-Jouanjean, continue their work creating more archival resources for both curricula. Mayer-Jouanjean is a historian with a specialty in weather related events, who has recently worked in putting together a historical database of flood and water related events for Quebec. She will work on find the dates of specific events to supplement the list we generated last year.
Candice Cartier is a document and database manager who will be responsible for the main task of digitizing the selected articles from microfilm and organizing them, based on the list of dates generated. The work of our new employees in digitizing archival material will make it more widely available for students to access so that our curriculum can be run at more post-secondary educational institutions. Their work will take place primarily at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).
Both of our curricula involve post-secondary students in learning about historical climate and weather while using the the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca) online citizen science platform. Students learn through hands-on work with DRAW, archival resources, and class discussions/lecture. They gain knowledge of weather and climate in Montreal, associated human events, and their own heritage as Canadians. Through citizen science and crowdsourcing, DRAW involves the Montreal public in the collection and transcription of weather information recorded between in logbooks from the former McGill University Observatory. DRAW, itself, constitutes an interdisciplinary effort with researchers from McGill University’s Faculties of Arts, Science and Education, and McGill University Archives.
As previously mentioned – Our next steps include the work of Isabelle Mayer Jouanjean and Candice Cartier to provide additional resources for students to use in our curriculum. They also include the development of a color curriculum book with resources for post-secondary educators as well for both our curricula.
This will be published as a PDF on the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca/) website and form a key part of the educator’s corner that will be added to the resources available on the site. Finally, we are now finishing work on our first research manuscript which we plan to submit to the peer reviewed journal Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.
Our two new hires, Candice Cartier and Isabelle Mayer Jouanjean, have begun work on the next steps to support expansion of our curriculum to new post-secondary institutions. Their work will help create to a digital database of secondary sources of historical climatic and weather events to add to the scientific data records captured in the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca) record.
This new source will document how the weather and climate affected human social, cultural, or political processes. Cartier and Jouanjean will be responsible for scanning and digitizing archival newspaper records and other first-hand materials from the time period, 1871-1964, for use in our curriculum. They will be looking especially for articles and materials that recount the impact the weather had on daily lives.
Our curriculum involves post-secondary students in learning about historical climate and weather in Montreal, associated human events, and their own heritage as Canadians. Students learn through hands-on work with DRAW, archival resources, and class discussions/lecture. The work of our new employees in digitizing archival material will make it more widely available for students to access so that our curriculum can be run at more post-secondary educational institutions.
Their work will take place primarily at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). Through citizen science and crowdsourcing, DRAW involves the Montreal public in the collection and transcription of weather information recorded between in logbooks from the former McGill University Observatory. DRAW, itself, constitutes an interdisciplinary effort with researchers from McGill University’s Faculties of Arts, Science and Education, and in partnership with the McGill University Archives.
Our next steps include the work of Isabelle Mayer Jouanjean and Candice Cartier to provide additional resources for students to use in our curriculum. They also include the development of a color curriculum book with resources for post-secondary educators as well. This will be published as a PDF on the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca/) website and form a key part of the educator’s corner that will be added to the resources available on the site.
Our lessons learned so far include the need to hire individuals who possess the technical expertise to be able to discern the historical types of weather and climate events we are looking for in the historical record.
We believe that hiring individuals with higher levels of expertise, better delineating the goals for their work (as opposed to what we can do ourselves), and strongly guiding their work (we will have meetings next week with both) can improve the quality of the work we receive and, ultimately, our ability to provide the resources necessary for the success of our curriculum.
Log book
We’re hiring one graduate student or casual employee for the academic year. If you’re interested, please contact Drew Bush at drew.bush@mail.mcgill.ca. Please see the job description here:
We are looking to hire a part-time employee for up to 10 hours per week to aid in the development of archival resources for a three-week post-secondary course module curriculum. Compensation will be at the rate established by McGill University of $13.75 per hour worked for casual employees (with 3.6% for holidays and 4% for vacation).
The person who undertakes this work will be responsible for the scanning and digitization of archival newspaper records and other first-hand materials from the time period, 1871-1964. They will also actively look for and note down climate, weather and outdoor event related articles in the work they scan. This work will take place primarily at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and the digitized records will be used as part of educational curricula being developed for the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca).
Through citizen science and crowdsourcing, DRAW involves the Montreal public in the collection and transcription of weather information recorded between in logbooks from the former McGill University Observatory. DRAW, itself, constitutes an interdisciplinary effort with researchers from McGill University’s Faculties of Arts, Science and Education, and in partnership with the McGill University Archives.
“The purpose of this project is to enable the development of a unique Montreal specific citizen science curriculum, and expand it to include new post-secondary institutions. This curriculum will further students understanding of weather and climate and their related social impacts.
By integrating the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW, https://citsci.geog.mcgill.ca/) website, the curriculum engages students with hands-on experience in data analysis and with cultural and scientific aspects of Montreal’s heritage. Through citizen science and crowdsourcing, DRAW involves the Montreal public in the collection and transcription of weather information recorded between 1871 to 1964 in logbooks from the former McGill University Observatory.
DRAW, itself, constitutes an interdisciplinary effort with researchers from McGill University’s Faculties of Arts, Science and Education, and in partnership with the McGill University Archives.
First piloted and evaluated during March and April of 2018 at Dawson College, this project’s three-week curriculum focuses on introducing students to social science research methods, including citizen science based transcription of historical weather data and research that links historical weather with contemporary social conditions or events.
The course’s main assignment asks students to conduct their own research on the time period for which they have transcribed data with DRAW by examining how the physical environment, as exemplified by the weather, related to human social, political, and cultural processes. After transcribing one (or more) pages on the DRAW website, students refer to online digital and McGill University microfilm resources to investigate the social consequences of climatic or weather events in historical newspaper accounts, photos, texts, and other primary sources from the time period.
Students benefit from undertaking original social science research methods in fields that include historical climate science, archival research, analysis of original source material, and data transcription.
This project is unique to Montreal as DRAW was developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration at McGill University. We are the only group of researchers and educators with access to the resources needed to adapt and expand this project to both francophone and anglophone educational settings in Montreal at the post-secondary level.
Our project emphasizes hands-on, active learning by students who use a variety of scientific and research technologies to conduct their own research during our course module.
Our four general learning outcomes include students being able to:
1) explain how scientists examine Montreal’s historical records of climate and weather;
2) employ scientific research and data transcription skills to evaluate historical sources of scientific information;
3) explain how human social, cultural, and political events relate to climate and weather; and
4) apply scientific methods involving the use of historical climate records to their own research in class.
Students are expected to demonstrate mastery of three specific learning outcomes within each of these general areas by the end of our course module. These specific outcomes range across all of the levels of thinking identified by Bloom’s Taxonomy (Krathwohl, 2002). They also include factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive facets of student learning. A full table of specific learning outcomes can be provided upon request.
In fall 2018, our project’s success will be measured by the completion of four research and educational products.
First, we aim to complete the analysis of pilot research evaluating the educational impact of our three-week course module on 21 students at Dawson College. We aim to publish three manuscripts based upon the educational research instruments we utilized including pre/post questionnaires, pre/post exam questions, student and instructor exit interviews, student written reflections, assignment/handout work, and classroom video recording.
Second, we will measure project success based upon the digitization of one-year of microfilm pages of the Montreal Gazette from the time period covered by the DRAW Project.
Third, we will measure success based on the continued refinement of our research instruments (for use by all DRAW project participants).
Finally, our success will be measured by the completion of a course curriculum book for dissemination both online (on the DRAW website) and in print form to interested educators in Montreal.
Resources
DRAW: 'Data Rescue: Archival and Weather
DRAW, which stands for ‘Data Rescue: Archival and Weather’, allows volunteers to participate in the transcription of historical weather logs captured at the McGill weather observatory since 1863.
Data Rescue : Archives & Weather (DRAW) Project Transcription Tutorial. Help us uncover the story of Montreal’s evolving climate captured in the McGill Observatory’s historical weather logs.
Investigating Historical Weather Data and Its Sociocultural Impacts: Curriculum Book
Three-Week Course Module for the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW) Project. Prepared by Drew Bush, Geoffrey Pearce and Victoria Slonosky. Department of Geography, McGill University
Drew Bush – Has more than a decade of experience teaching students about Earth, ocean, and climate science and evaluating the impact of technology-based inquiry, citizen science, and service based curricula. Find out more about his work at http://tomlinson.lab.mcgill.ca/Drew/index.html.
Geoffrey Pearce – Has been teaching geography and environment courses at Dawson College for the last seven years and is presently the chair of the Geography Department. His present focus is on developing courses that engage students as researchers. He has created courses where students conduct oral histories about Montreal neighbourhoods and map their findings, and led the teaching of the DRAW module in his Research Methods (300-300-DW Section 07) course.
Victoria Slonosky – Is a historical climate researcher with more than two decades of experience analyzing past climates from early instrumental records from the 17th century onwards in both Canada and Europe. She runs the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstruction over the Earth (ACRE) Canada data rescue project (https://sites.google.com/site/historicalclimatedata/Home) and DRAW. Her forthcoming book, Climate in the Age of Empire, details the historical climatology of the Saint-Lawrence River Valley and the work of early weather observers in colonial Canada.”