Community Science Online: Building Capacity for Native Bee Monitoring

Abstract

Native bees are crucial for sustainable productivity in natural, agricultural, and urban ecosystems, but they are losing natural habitat spaces. Extension can facilitate community science programs to collect ecological data on native bee populations and support pollinator conservation. Native Bee Watch, an in-person community science program, transitioned to a hybrid format where volunteers received online training and support for conducting field-based data collection. This article presents the volunteers’ perceptions of the program training, support, and bee monitoring based on surveys and data analytics collected from technology tools. Study results indicate redesign successes and challenges and provide insight on how to improve the experience for volunteers participating in community science programs, with implications for Extension education.

Keywords

• community science
• citizen science
• pollinators
• online education
• native bees
• adult education
• conservation education
• volunteer engagement