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Beginit — a youth-led citizen science initiative in Kazakhstan where adolescents act as researchers and civic leaders. By investigating school route safety, presenting findings to local authorities and media, they transform data into action and gain a voice in local decision-making.

Abstract

This paper presents Beginit, a youth-led citizen science program in Kazakhstan where adolescents acted as researchers, advocates, and local change agents. The program’s premise is that children’s curiosity and civic awareness can grow into social leadership when they are provided not only with research tools but also with a public voice.

Implemented across ten regions and 97 small towns and rural settlements, Beginit engaged students aged 15 and 16 in investigating the safety of 500-metre school routes through surveys, participatory mapping, and focus groups with local administrations. The participants identified road hazards, developed data-informed proposals, and initiated dialogues with parents, teachers, and local deputies.

Through this process, children’s voices entered local decision-making: their findings were discussed in municipal meetings and reported by local media. What began as a technical data exercise evolved into civic inquiry, enabling young people to expand their “circle of responsibility” from identifying problems to advocating systemic solutions.

Beginit succeeded through mutual openness. Local administrations recognised youth as legitimate contributors, while facilitators ensured ethical inclusion and safety. This intergenerational collaboration helped challenge patriarchal norms restricting children’s participation.

Ultimately, Beginit demonstrates how youth-led citizen science operates as a democratic pedagogy, addressing real community issues while cultivating participatory leadership. The Kazakhstani case expands current understandings of citizen science, showing how research led by children can transform civic relations and reimagine social justice as lived, local practice.

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TOTCUS is a successful global model for enabling children as researchers. Linking youth across cultures, it integrates physical, social, and indigenous domains to explore climate impacts, strengthen intercultural learning, and inspire data-driven community action.

Abstract

I wish to contribute to this workshop by sharing experiences from The Ocean That Connects Us (TOTCUS), a global youth-led citizen science network linking students from New Zealand, Chile, the Cook Islands, Finland, India, Singapore, the Marshall Islands, the U.S., Rapa Nui, and beyond. Students connect virtually and in person to build intercultural relationships before co-designing and researching climate challenges relevant to their own communities.

TOTCUS projects are guided by three interconnected domains: the Physical Domain (climate impacts on water, soil, coastlines, flora, and fauna), the Social Domain (effects on human behavior, economy, infrastructure, agriculture, microplastics, and history), and the Indigenous Domain (climate impacts on cultural heritage, native knowledge, medicinal plants, and the skills required when migration from native lands becomes necessary).

Supported by teachers, researchers, and partner institutions, students progress from curiosity to data collection, analysis, and community action. The program fosters environmental literacy, empathy, and intercultural understanding while centering youth as researchers and change-makers.

This contribution will include an interactive discussion and short multimedia showcase illustrating how TOTCUS cultivates climate awareness and global collaboration across oceans—demonstrating that when youth are empowered as researchers, citizen science becomes a shared act of connection and hope.

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“NUCLIO fosters children’s natural curiosity through hands-on, participatory research. By engaging students as young scientists and connecting schools globally, citizen science develops critical thinking, science skills, and global citizenship, showing every child can be a scientist.”

Abstract

Children are natural explorers, constantly questioning the world around them. Yet traditional education systems often suppress this instinct, prioritising structure and conformity over curiosity and creativity. NUCLIO works under the belief that it is by fostering this curiosity that we can create a world where humans work harmoniously together to solve joint challenges.

Since 2004, NUCLIO has been promoting professional development to educators that incorporates students’ involvement into active research through participatory approaches, placing students as the leaders of their own learning path. By engaging students as scientists, from observing the night sky and monitoring light pollution to analysing space mission data, children get hands-on experience, whilst contributing to contemporary research. These encompass innovative and inclusive principles, real data acquired from robotic telescopes and satellites. A teacher's job is not to teach but to show students how to learn; they are the most important science communicators in children’s learning experience. Our goal is to inspire and empower educators to help learners become citizens of change for their communities.

Through international collaborations, NUCLIO connects schools across continents, allowing children to share data, ideas, and cultural perspectives while working towards common scientific goals. Students participating in these initiatives actively contribute to ongoing research while improving their science capital, critical thinking, and global citizenship awareness. By placing children at the heart of their communities’ needs, citizen science becomes a powerful tool to bridge the gap between the centre and the periphery, demonstrating that, under the same sky, every child can be a scientist.

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Primary school students acted as citizen scientists studying what their families learned from an open schooling project on firefly conservation. They co-designed research tools, analyzed data and shared findings at a municipal event. Results show that this approach extends learning beyond schools.

Abstract

Empowering communities to address current and future sustainability challenges requires educational approaches that engage students and community partners in authentic inquiry around real-world problems. While numerous studies highlight the potential of open schooling initiatives to foster sustainability competences among students, fewer have explored their capacity to generate learning among other members of the educational community, such as families.

Within the BiblioLab project, researchers in science education, teachers, natural area managers and a local association co-designed an educational activity to promote understanding of ecological systems and positive attitudes towards the conservation of the Portuguese firefly (Luciola lusitanica). The project enabled primary school students (aged 9–10) to select local partners with whom they would like to learn from and engage with in the planning and implementation of project to protect this species. During the entire project the parents were engaged as partners. The final products developed by the students included an artistic display in a public space to promote public awareness about fireflies’ conservation.

Curious about their project’s broader impact and acting as citizen scientists students formulated their own research question — What did our families learn from taking part in this project? Together with their teacher and researchers, they co-designed and administered questionnaires with open and closed questions, and collaboratively performed a content analysis of the responses.

Results show that families learned about the firefly’s biology, threats to its survival, and conservation measures. These results were presented by the students at a municipal sustainability event, contributing to community dialogue on learning and environmental action. This case illustrates how open schooling approaches that promote citizen science in schools can transform students into researchers and extend learning beyond classrooms reaching other members of the school communities.

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I am an Associate Professor at the University of Bologna specialized in Human-Computer Interaction. My research focuses on participatory approaches, citizen science, and teenagers, primarily aimed at improving their well-being, and I am eager to listen to children's voices!

Abstract

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy. My background is in Computer Science, and my research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction, particularly on designing innovative technologies for social good that empower and benefit people.

In recent years, I have increasingly focused on working with teenagers to engage them in citizen science and participatory design. I explore co-design as a method to involve young people in creating digital solutions that address their well-being, as well as social and community issues, helping them develop skills, awareness, and a sense of agency. Currently, I am working on three projects involving teenagers and citizen science. The first focuses on digital well-being, aiming to develop a platform for teachers and students to raise awareness and improve healthy digital habits. The second involves co-designing a mobile app for mental health with teenagers, fostering emotional awareness and resilience. The third is a regional project in which we run workshops combining citizen science, co-design, and game thinking, engaging over 500 students to date.

I am particularly excited about the workshop, and I am truly looking forward to hearing the children's voices!