Exploring embedded assessment to document scientific inquiry skills within citizen science

Scientific inquiry is inherent in citizen science (CS), and perhaps for this reason has been used to distinguish between contributory, collaborative and co-created models of public participation in CS (Bonney et al., 2009; Shirk et al., 2012). Despite the fact that inquiry can be seen as a defining characteristic, methods for demonstrating the impact of CS on volunteers’ scientific inquiry skills are limited (Phillips, Bonney, & Shirk, 2012). This assessment challenge is not unique to CS. Indeed, both formal and informal science education have seen recent calls encouraging researchers and evaluators to begin using performance as a key metric of scientific inquiry skill (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder, 2009; Fenichel & Schweingruber, 2010; National Research Council, 2014). The field of CS is poised to make a significant contribution to our understanding of how to measure science inquiry learning via performance-based measures.