Plastic Pirates

Accompanying Research - “Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!”

Duration

09/2020 – 08/2022

Funding

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Members

Prof. Dr. Joachim Wirth, Vanessa van den Bogaert und Valerie Knapp

Description

“Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!” is a citizen science campaign that encourages children and young people across Europe to collect and map plastic waste in and around flowing waters. The project started in Germany in 2016 and was extended to Slovenia and Portugal during the EU Council Trio Presidency from 2020-21.

Quality is an essential aspect of citizen science, encompassing the implementation of projects, participants' experience, scientific data quality, and collaboration between citizens and scientists. However, there is a lack of scientific findings on these issues. To address this, the accompanying research to the campaign, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), aimed to promote knowledge about the participants of the campaign “Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!”, the effect of participation on them, and the perception of the campaign within the EU. Furthermore, the research can help promote the added value of citizen science projects and their implementation within the framework of school education.

Using quantitative and qualitative methods the accompanying research project described a holistic approach to the field of citizen science and allowed for, on the one hand, insights into characteristics of the participants of the citizen science campaign through a novel research design combining panel surveys and experimental studies. On the other hand, the research project created the opportunity to learn more about the conditions for success and obstacles to the European rollout of the campaign “Plastic Pirates - Go Europe!” from the perspective of different stakeholder groups through qualitative inquiry.

More Information

https://www.plastic-pirates.eu/de

Selected Publications

van den Bogaert, V., & Knapp, V. (2021). Citizen Science im Unterricht. Erkenntnisgewinnung durch (onlinegestütztes) Mitforschen. Digital unterrichten. Biologie, (1):3.

Kiessling, T., van den Bogaert, V., Lawa, R., B., R., Çolakoğlu, J., Kruse, K., & Knickmeier, K. (2023). „Plastic Pirates – Go Europe!“ Lehrkräfte berichten von ihren Erfahrungen mit dem Citizen-Science-Projekt. Citizen Science. Unterricht Chemie, 194.

Knapp, V., & van den Bogaert, V. (2023). Praxisbeitrag: Quantitative Befragungen. In P. Niemann, V. van den Bogaert, & R. Ziegler (Hrsg.), Evaluationsmethoden der Wissenschaftskommunikation (S. 85-103). Springer. DOI