UNDP we partnered with the Ministry of Education of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires to promote the emergence of the “Citizen Science Program at School” together with the Center for Research on the Sea and the Atmosphere (CIMA). -CONICET-UBA), Institute of Chemistry, Physics of Materials, Environment and Energy (INQUIMAE-CONICET-UBA) and the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, which shows that There are many of us, and more and more, who are convinced of its potential. 

This programme deploys three citizen science projects in 57 schools to work with more than 100 teachers and 1,000 students to measure the city's air quality using passive tubes installed in schools strategically distributed in the city; monitor, forecast and generate meteorological alerts linked to hydrometeorological events; and map the Earth's magnetic field using a mobile application. 

Now, the “Citizen Science at School Programme” is being implemented on a daily basis by teachers and students. Precisely, in these spaces, processes occur that allow us to reinforce the reason why we work so that citizen science continues to grow in Argentina. As an illustration, a technical school designed a project to inform and raise awareness about the various components present in the air. To do this, it developed its own low-cost air quality measurement sensor. Others are looking at how to build homemade rain gauges with elements from everyday life, so boys and girls can take this activity home and do it as a family.  

Citizen science provides students with valuable participatory and practical experiences that lead to learning based on the investigation of their environment. And there we do not discover anything new: any child or young person can ask questions, observe, collect data, discuss it with others and communicate their findings. Research is inherent to being human, and citizen science comes to remind us of it. 

This article was originally published at: https://www.undp.org/es/argentina/blog/las-escuelas-de-la-ciudad-de-buenos-aires-incorporan-la-ciencia-ciudadana-en-las-aulas