Citizen science, which actively engages citizens in scientific research, is successful with communities, and students' involvement in this approach has considerable pedagogical potential. However, Chemistry's citizen science projects have proved to be scarce within the scientific community. Chemistry is also, in the students' view, a subject that is difficult to learn, uninteresting, and disconnected from reality. In this way, due to its involvement in scientific research contextualized with real and socially relevant issues, citizen science is outlined as a strategy to improve Chemistry Education. In this path, the <i>PVC - Perceiving the Value of Chemistry</i> citizen science project appears to promote conceptual and procedural learning in Chemistry and raise students' awareness of the marine litter problem. This project involved nine middle school Chemistry teachers and their students in the coastal waters’ quality monitoring and detection of microplastics in those waters of Portugal's northern region during an entire school year. The impact of the PVC project on participating teachers' teaching practices was assessed through the content analysis of interviews with teachers and the researcher's field notes. The main results suggest that the activities developed within the PVC project's scope presented a formative character for teachers due to the new contexts, contents, and laboratory techniques explored, allowing them to dynamize their teaching practices and promote an interdisciplinary view of the topics addressed. Furthermore, teachers recognize that the interdisciplinarity established with several other school subjects has enabled the students' mobilization of knowledge from different and new perspectives. Also, by developing pedagogical resources and training within this citizen science project, teachers recognized that they would continue this educational experience.<br/>The globally positive results of the PVC project's impact are good indicators of citizen science projects' pedagogical potential, opening doors to future investigations involving other contexts, Chemistry contents, and/or students from different grades.

Citizen science in chemistry education: Contributions to teaching practices

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ACS Spring 2023

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