In 2014, the Miistakis Institute hosted a Citizen Science Conference, exploring this diverse field with sessions on program design, evaluation, policy implications, technology and applications in parks and protected areas. This links to the website that chronicled that event.
Tracy Howlett
Speaker Bio: Tracy Howlett has worked for the Government of Alberta for just over six years and is currently the Knowledge Translation Lead with the Indigenous Knowledge, Community Monitoring and Citizen Science Branch of AEP’s Environmental Monitoring and Science Division.
Tracy has a background in environmental science and geography with a focus on Geographic Information Systems. She recently received her MSc from the University of Warwick where she studied Intercultural Communication. Over the past 15 years, Tracy has worked extensively with Indigenous groups across western Canada and has spent much of her career working at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and western science.
Poster/Talk abstract: An Inventory of the Who’s and What’s of Citizen Science in Alberta
Through 2015 and 2016, the Miistakis Institute was contracted by EMSD to produce a report which would establish “a foundation for the Chief Scientist and EMSD to understand the state of citizen science in Alberta and beyond, and to demonstrate the value of citizen science in supporting and advancing the development and implementation of an environmental science program”. The report concluded with four key recommendations the fourth of which was the development of a citizen science hub to share resources and widely promote citizen science in Alberta.
To support this recommendation, the report included an inventory of citizen science initiatives available for Albertans to participate in. Through the summer of 2017, EMSD employed a summer student to revisit the inventory and build upon it. The student, Zizhao (Finn) Wang, also produced a recommendation for the creation of a central portal or hub from which interested Albertan’s could access a variety of citizen science applications and information.
In this presentation, the preliminary inventory will be shared as well as considerations for next steps in the development of a hub for sharing citizen science information in Alberta.
This presentation accompanies a poster which will provide more detail and hopefully support the ongoing conversation around tools to support citizen science in Alberta. Interested participants are encouraged to connect with the speaker at the poster presentation session and share their thoughts.