INFOGRAPHIC

The Wisdom of Crowds

For global citizen science projects, crowdsourcing usually means lots of people are either providing or analyzing data. Sometimes, they do both, as in this example of an urban heat island project.

Grades

5 - 8

Subjects

Experiential Learning, Conservation

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Crowdsourcing refers to a large group of people working together to achieve a goal. Share the infographic with students and ask them to describe crowdsourcing in their own words. Ask them: What does this urban heat island map tell us? Why is crowdsourcing an important part of this project?

Have students work in small groups to research crowdsourcing online. Ask them to find at least three examples of projects that use crowdsourcing for data collection or analysis and to report out to the class about these projects. Then ask them to generate an idea for a project around their school or community that would benefit from crowdsourcing and pitch that idea to the whole class through a presentation or persuasive writing.

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Produced by

CSA Education

Director

Mary Ford, National Geographic Society

On-site Project Manager

Anne Haywood, Mountain to Sea Education

Reviewers

Dr. Brittney Beck, California State University, Bakersfield

Peg Keiner, 31 Days of Citizen Science

Kerryanne Monahan, Saint Edward's School

Last Updated

March 21, 2024

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