In TAKING CITIZEN SCIENCE TO SCHOOL (TCSS), university scientists partner with students, teachers and their communities to advance scientific research while impacting society. This community engagement initiative provides equitable quality science education through school students' participation in various stages of ongoing scientific research. The collaboration serves not only to advance research, and to promote school students’ learning but also to democratize science and contribute to a more equitable society.

Our initiative inspires and supports scientists from the University of Haifa and the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in developing citizen science research projects. We implement them in schools following a mutualistic agenda: creating win-win situations, in which both scientists’ need for reliable data and students’ need for meaningful science learning experiences are met. For example, in the project Sleep is One-Third of Life, students complete sleeping journals for collecting data about youths' sleeping habits, but they also develop their own interesting inquiry questions and pursue them. In contrast with the majority of citizen science projects which are contributory in type, in TCSS, our partnerships are non-hierarchical – we draw on the different expertise of all members.

The mutualistic agenda allows us to build the capacity and infrastructure for sustainable and widespread involvement of school students and their communities in academic research.

By meaningfully involving schools in societal advancement through citizen science, TCSS shepherds schools to become co-creators of knowledge, where students learn with agency, and their own advancement coincide with well-being of their friends, families, and communities.

Yael Kali
TCSS Director
Learning and Instructional Sciences,  University of Haifa



Ayelet Baram-Tsabari
Principal Investigator
Education in Science and Technology,  Technion - Israel Institute of Technology



Dani Ben-Zvi
Principal Investigator
Learning and Instructional Sciences,  University of Haifa



Dina Tsybulsky
Principal Investigator
Education in Science and Technology,  Technion - Israel Institute of Technology



Tali Tal
Principal Investigator
Education in Science and Technology,  Technion - Israel Institute of Technology



Yotam Hod
Principal Investigator
Learning and Instructional Sciences,  University of Haifa



Ornit Sagy
Research Coordinator
Learning and Instructional Sciences,  University of Haifa

We are tremendously grateful to our partners, especially the students, teachers and scientists, who were willing to learn and grow with us. We would also like to thank educational policy-makers, school staffs, and environmental NGOs who made all this learning possible. Additionally, without the support of both our universities, we would not have been able to establish and maintain TCSS. The University of Haifa, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Science, view the third mission as a fundamental core their visions. Finally, much of the TCSS work was supported by the Israeli Science Foundation, grant 2678/17, and by the contribution by Oscar Davis through the Citizen Lab at Madatech - Israel National Science Museum.