STEP 3. Data Collection

An important part of the Open Science Schooling (OSS) is to develop students’ ability to carry out scientific investigations. In order to develop such skills, teachers must encourage students to ask questions and find out things scientifically.

Students’ missions point out areas of interest, and set directions for their inquiries, and teachers are to scaffold the students as they design their own research and collect data in a scientific way. 

(See also 1. Identify a problem and 2. Plan of action)

Data collection can be …

- finding information and facts. The teacher helps students to find reliable sources and to verify information. The students use note techniques to take out relevant information and organize it.

They can use

  •  written, audio- or video recordings for this purpose.
  • to do an interview. The teacher scaffold the students in their preparation of the interview, e.g. by asking them questions about what they want to know,
  • who want to interview and how to ask questions in order to get the wanted information. Questions are written down
  • and answers may either be written down as well, or the whole session can be audio recorded.
  • when the students search for information and facts, the study of models also requires registrations. The students can explain their understanding of models orally, and write it down so that the teacher can get an idea of their process.

Likewise, the relevance of the models' for their mission must be clear and explained.

  • observation/experiment. Here the teacher’s role is to make sure that the students’ design will provide them with the kind of information that they ask for, and that it will support their mission. It is of significant importance that the teacher conducts constructive dialogue with the students order to develop their understanding of how to collect data, and their purpose. Ways of making records of data are also to be determined.

Key role of the teacher

In general, a key role of the teacher is to encourage students to take critical views on both methods of data collection and on the data themselves in order to be able to develop as critical science students. Ongoing reflections upon and revision of their designs support this development and must be seen as a natural part of the students’ learning process.

Once the type (-s) of data collection is decided, considerations of how to register, secure and share data for further processing must be done. Teacher’s role in this part of the process is to provide options for the students to consider, e.g. worksheets and practical things. such as cardboard and plastic bags, when the students do fieldwork and various kinds of digital and analog tools and equipment to produce and log data. Especially when the students use pictures/ videos and audio recordings the teacher must ensure that the students make the necessary agreements so that nobody is offended, and no legislation is violated (GDPR).

Recommendations and comments

- from the teachers in the project to teachers who would like to start working with Climate Change Education:

“Let the students do the work themselves, and only interfere when necessary as a teacher. Otherwise the freedom will be limited and the students might not do as well. Creativity should be at the hands of the students, only the rules should be made by the staff. Often students come up with great ideas and these ideas later can become the ways to problem-solving and better ways of education” (Teacher from Lithuania).

“During step three students were mainly focusing on gathering information about how successfully introduce their ideas. Therefore it is crutial to suport them whenever they need help from more experienced adults. On this stage they were consulting representatives of local authorities, non-goverment organisations, their parents and other teachers from school.  They were looking for information on the Internet and in the school library” (Teacher from Poland).