Crowdsourcing Conservation

Participatory Science, Place Based Learning, and Open Science

Fri. Jan 23, 2026

Delaware Biotechnology Institute, 15 Innovation Way, Newark, DE 19716

Host: DISCovery (Delaware Interdisciplinary STEAM Citizen Science Consortium)

Funder: DENIN (Delaware Environmental Institute). DENIN, founded in 2009, “supports interdisciplinary research projects and educational initiatives that address environmental issues, reaching faculty, student researchers and collaborators.”

Participating Schools: MOT Charter High School, Newark High School, Newark Charter, Padua Academy, Saint Marks High School, The John Dickinson School, William Penn High School

The USE CitSci 3D model for using Citizen Science in Undergraduate Science Education. USE CitSci is an NSF Funded Research Collaboration Network Project.

Websites:

• USE CitSci NSF RCN group page

• DNA Citizen Science water lab

• “Getting Started with eDNA Research” by Ana Elisa Garcia Vedrenne, University of California, Irvine

• International Meteorological Charts Tool

• Keystone Mesonet

• Microbe Hunters

Jon Manon

President of the Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Instruction

Jon Manon served for over thirty years as a mathematics educator at the University of Delaware with dual appointments in the School of Education and the Department of Mathematical Sciences. As Director of the Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center, he developed collaborative projects in professional learning for teachers across all 17 school districts in Delaware. After retiring in 2017, Jon was recruited to teach math courses for students in the Associate in Arts Program, first on the Georgetown campus and then in Wilmington as well. It was during this period, especially in support of remote instruction during the pandemic, that Jon pioneered a range of tech-based interactive techniques to secure student engagement in the mathematics content. Jon currently serves as the President of the Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Instruction.

Sam Clem

DENIN Associate Director of Diversity, Education, and Outreach

Sam Clem an Associate Director of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), where she leads interdisciplinary teams of environmental researchers in developing broad-reaching education, workforce development, and outreach programs. Sam has experience teaching at all levels of education, having started her career as a K-12 ESL teacher abroad before moving into higher education and teaching undergraduate business English, technical communication, and teacher pedagogy. Sam complements this academic experience with years of experience in industry as a freelance translator and an environmental entrepreneur.

Kevin Brinson

Delaware State Climatologist, Director of the Center for Environmental Monitoring & Analysis

Kevin Brinson is the Delaware State Climatologist and Director of Center for Environmental Monitoring & Analysis at the University of Delaware. Previously, Kevin served as the Director of the Delaware Environmental Observing System (or DEOS) Network, which is the official real-time weather monitoring network for the state of Delaware.  Kevin completed his PhD in Climatology in 2023 and was appointed as an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware later that year. His research is primarily focused on how water varies in the environment relative to climate processes, also known as hydroclimatology.

Dan McDevit

Associate Professor of Biology

​Dan McDevitt teaches biology for the University of Delaware’s Associate Arts Program in Wilmington. He has a B.S. in biology from Trinity College in Connecticut, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College in Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He joined UD in 2017 after teaching biology for six years at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida. Currently, he is exploring interests in the ecology of marshland habitats on the Delaware River and the biology of honeybees (in the AAP’s very own beehives!), as well as looking at the impact of hands-on research in the science classroom. In addition to teaching biology, Dr. McDevit also serves as the liaison for UD’s Disability Support Services (DSS) on the Wilmington campus.

Dwight Higgin

Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences

Dr. Dwight Higgin is an Assistant Professor in Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. He is also Associate Director of the NASA Delaware Space Grant Consortium and teaches in the Associate in Arts Program in Willington. Established in 1991 the Delaware Space Grant Consortium is funded by NASA in order to train students and researchers in the state of Delaware in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and geography. By means of this training, the state of Delaware aims to help in contributing to the technically literate workforce which NASA will need in the years ahead. Dr. Higgin will present briefly on opportunities for teachers to apply for $3,000 grants.

David Christopher

DE Sea Grant Marine Education Specialist

David Christopher is the Marine Education Specialist for Delaware Sea Grant at the University of Delaware. He conducts K-16 marine education on University of Delaware’s Lewes campus, assists researchers with the educational outreach portions of their projects, and hosts teacher workshops. David has B.A. in Biology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and an M.Ed. from Goucher College.  Prior to coming to Delaware Sea Grant, he worked in the Education Department at the National Aquarium for 18 years.  David is active in the Delaware Association for Environmental Education, the Mid-Atlantic Marine Education Association, and National Marine Educators Association (NMEA).  David served as NMEA president from July 2021-July 2022 and currently is the chair of the Delaware Association for Environmental Education.  In 2024, NMEA honored David with the James Centorino award for outstanding work and leadership in marine education at the local, regional, and national level.

Zoubeida R. Dagher

Professor of Science Education

Dr. Zoubeida R. Dagher is a professor of science education at the School of Education and a faculty fellow at the Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, from the International History and Philosophy of Science Teaching (IHPST) Community. Her research interests focus on the nature of scientific methods and practices and representations of scientific epistemology in science curriculum and instruction and clinical digital simulations in science teacher education. Dr. Dagher has coauthored a book titled Reconceptualizing the Nature of Science for Science Education (2014). She teaches a graduate course for teachers on Citizen Science.

John R. Jungck

Professor of Biological Sciences and Mathematical Sciences

John R. Jungck is a Professor of Biological Sciences and holds joint appointments in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Bioinformatics/Computational Biology Program at the University of Delaware. He is a 2025-2027 DENIN Fellow (Delaware Environmental Institute), the Inaugural Fellow of the Honors College, and the Associate Director of the Institute for Transforming University Education (ITUE). He is the former Editor of Biology International, Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching, the American Biology Teacher, and the BioQUEST Library. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals including the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Mathematics, and the American Journal of Undergraduate Research. He has also been the Editor of special issues of Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena; Briefings in Bioinformatics, and cbe Life Science Education.  He is a leader in biology education reform (founder of the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium) a mathematical molecular evolutionary biologist, and a computer software developer of biological simulations, tools, and databases. His research interests are in mathematical and theoretical biology and interdisciplinary education.

References:

• Aristeidou, Maria, and Christothea Herodotou. (2020). “Online Citizen Science.” Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 5 (1): 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.224

• Amsha, O. A., D. K. Schneider. J. L. Fernandez-Marquez, J. Da Costa, B. Fuchs, and L. Kloetzer.  (2016). “Data Analytics in Citizen Cyberscience.” Human Computation 3 (1): 69-97. Publication DOI: 10.15346/hc.v3i1.5

• Jungck, John R., and Jon Manon. (2019). “Brave Spaces.” Numeracy 12 (1): article 4 (35 pages). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.12.1.4

• Jungck, John R. (2015). ‘Citizen Science: Contribute to a Common Good, Collaborate, and Communicate!”. American Journal of Undergraduate Research, 12(3), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.33697/ajur.2015.010

• Jungck, John. R. (2024). “Citizen University” Seven Innovations to Transform Biology Education. The American Biology Teacher, 86(7), 399–400. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2024.86.7.399

• Vance-Chalcraft, H. D., & Jelks, N. O. (2023). Community-engaged learning to broaden the impact of applied ecology: A case study. Ecological Applications, 33(5), e2768. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2768

• Vance-Chalcraft, H. D., Smith, K. C., Allen, J., Bowser, G., Cooper, C. B., Jelks, N. O., Karl, C., Kodner, R., & Laslo, M. (2024). Social Justice, Community Engagement, and Undergraduate STEM Education: Participatory Science as a Teaching Tool. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 23(2), es3. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.23-06-0123