Unlocking a Region of Curious Minds? The Impact of the Participatory Science Platform on Science Education in Taranaki

The Participatory Science Platform, an action of the 2014 New Zealand government’s strategic plan for Science in Society ‘A Nation of Curious Minds: He Whenua Hihiri i te Mahara’, was expected to improve science education by bringing ‘real world’ science into the classroom through citizen science projects. However, no formal evaluation of its success in achieving these outcomes has been carried out. This study uses Curious Minds Taranaki, one of three pilots of the Participatory Science Platform, as a case study to explore how the initiative has influenced teacher self-efficacy, student engagement, and connections between schools and science professionals. It utilises a qualitative methodology based around a case study design with data gathered from semi-structured interviews. The study found that Curious Minds Taranaki projects were more likely to enable positive relationships to be built between local science experts and schools, rather than with experts from formal research establishments. The initiative created opportunities for teachers with low self-efficacy to increase their confidence in delivering the science curriculum by allowing them to observe the practice of effective science outreach specialists. Teachers with high self-efficacy were given opportunities to build mastery by accessing additional resourcing and expertise. Student engagement was supported primarily by the creation of positive experiences where science learning was positioned within a locally-relevant context. Recommendations are offered that use the findings of this study to improve the delivery of a local science curriculum, including a model that depicts best practice for a citizen science enabler organisation to integrate participatory science into the New Zealand Curriculum.