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

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-10, Vol.17 (19), p.7278
• Main Authors: Derrien, Monika M, Zuidema, Christopher, Jovan, Sarah, Bidwell, Amanda, Brinkley, Weston, López, Paulina, Barnhill, Roseann, Blahna, Dale J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Air pollution; Air Pollution - analysis; Air pollution measurements; Bioindicators; Bryophyta; Careers; Collaboration; Community; Community Participation; Curricula; Environmental education; Environmental equity; Environmental Health; Environmental justice; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental research; Gentrification; Health disparities; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Heavy metal content; Heavy metals; Humans; Leadership; Mosses; Neighborhoods; Pollutants; Research projects; Science; Scientists; Statistical analysis; Statistical methods; Washington
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17197278

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; = 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.