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Short Abstract

Based on two school-based citizen humanities projects – Our History and Climate Future Fiction/FUSION – this paper will show how CS activities can bridge past, present, and future for high school students.

Abstract

School-based activities within Citizen Humanities offer a valuable pathway for bridging past, present, and future in the educational experiences of high school students. Two illustrative curriculum-based cases—Our History and Climate Future Fiction—engage Danish high school students as citizen scientists, enabling them to generate, analyze, and disseminate research data.

In Our History, students conduct interviews with elderly individuals about their lived experiences during the societal transformations in Denmark in the 1960s and 1970s. These interviews serve as data for academic research. To prepare students for this task, they receive instruction on relevant topics such as the women’s movement, gender roles, and family life. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to compare the societal conditions of the past with those of their own time. An additional research component invites students to reflect on their anticipated future family and work lives, thereby fostering a connection between past, present, and future.

In Climate Future Fiction, students contribute to research on youth perspectives regarding long-term climate change by writing and analyzing climate fiction (Cli-Fi) narratives in their English classes. In addition to creative writing, students engage with historical and contemporary climate data through lectures and digital tools. This multifaceted approach enables students to explore climate change across temporal dimensions, once again bridging past, present, and future.

Together, these curriculum-based Citizen Humanities initiatives exemplify how engaging students in research-oriented activities can foster critical reflection and temporal awareness, while simultaneously contributing to broader academic knowledge production.