Software Developer Sam Bland led a discussion and design jam on using web apps in citizen science research projects, drawing on his work creating a web app for UK school students as part of the SAMHE (Schools’ Air Quality Monitoring for Health and Education) project.
Wireframe diagrams are a key part of designing digital products like web apps.
Photo: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash
Organized by the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI), this year’s Collaborations Workshop centred on three key themes:
The event brought together researchers, developers, innovators, managers, funders, publishers, policy makers, leaders and educators to explore best practices and the future of research software.
Sam ran a mini-workshop titled ‘Indoor air quality in schools: the SAMHE citizen science project‘ which discussed the challenges and opportunities in school citizen science projects that use web apps as a means of connecting students and researchers.
This session began with an introduction to the SAMHE project covering the challenges and solutions of working on a citizen science project that connects a multidisciplinary team of researchers with over 1000 schools across the UK. Sam demonstrated the SAMHE monitor and Web App, showing how it is used by teachers and students. Participants had the opportunity to try out the activities themselves and give feedback and suggestions for improvement.
The second half of the workshop was a design jam to design a new activity for the SAMHE Web App which could be implemented and delivered to schools. This activity engaged participants in the complex challenge of designing an activity that meets the needs of a broad age range of students, provides valuable data to researchers and above all is fun! Sam provided guidance and facilitated discussion on some of the ethical, technical and data challenges that could be faced in the implementation of their activity.
The session used Miro (or similar online whiteboard) to allow both in person and online participants to contribute to the design jam and make comments on specific parts of the presentation and discussion.
Project / A citizen science project monitoring indoor air, created with and for UK schools.
Past event / SEI York discussed the collaborative teaching of sustainability and policy, using its interdisciplinary module at the University of York as a case study.
Journal article / The SAMHE Web App was co-designed with schools to ensure maximum acceptance and engagement by teachers and pupils, as this is critical to the project's success.
Project / Working with young people to co-design relevant mental health research by identifying and addressing priority research questions.
