Toward Environmental Justice in Civic Science: Youth Performance and Experience Measuring Air Pollution Using Moss as a Bio-Indicator in Industrial-Adjacent Neighborhoods

Monika M. Derrien, Christopher Zuidema, Sarah Jovan, Amanda Bidwell, Weston Brinkley, Paulina López, Roseann Barnhill and Dale J. Blahna
Additional contact information
Monika M. Derrien: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA 98103, USA
Christopher Zuidema: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Sarah Jovan: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR 97205, USA
Amanda Bidwell: Amanda L Bidwell, LLC, Seattle, WA 98102, USA
Weston Brinkley: Street Sounds Ecology, LLC, Seattle, WA 98117, USA
Paulina López: Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, Seattle, WA 98108, USA
Roseann Barnhill: Duwamish Infrastructure and Restoration Training Corps, Seattle, WA 98108, USA
Dale J. Blahna: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA 98103, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: This article reports on an interdisciplinary evaluation of the pilot phase of a community-driven civic science project. The project investigates the distribution of heavy metals in air pollution using moss growing on street trees as a bio-indicator in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington (USA). One goal of the ongoing project is to meaningfully engage local urban youths (eighth to twelfth grade) in the scientific process as civic scientists, and teach them about environmental health, environmental justice, and urban forestry concepts in a place-based, urban-oriented environmental research project. We describe the collaborative context in which our project developed, evaluate the quality of youth-collected data through analysis of replicate samples, and assess participants’ learning, career interests, and overall appraisal of the pilot. Our results indicate that youth scientists collected usable samples (with acceptable precision among repeated samples), learned project content (with statistically significant increases in scores of test-style survey questions; p = 0.002), and appraised their engagement favorably (with 69% of participants reporting they liked the project). We observed few changes in career interests, however. We discuss our intention to use these preliminary insights to further our community-driven education, research, and action model to address environmental injustices.

Keywords: environmental justice; air pollution; moss bio-indicators; citizen science; youth; community engagement; environmental education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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