Pre - 2007: The first version of FieldScope was developed at Northwestern University under the direction of Dr. Daniel Edelson, then a faculty member in the Education and Computer Science program. This version was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF)1 in conjunction with the GLOBE Program to provide access to hydrology data to K-12 schools through a free, web-based platform.
2007 - 2011: Dr. Edelson joined the National Geographic Society as VP for Education in 2007, and he brought FieldScope with him. In those early years, National Geographic launched a small initiative that invited K-12 classrooms to collect and analyze water quality data from bodies of water in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This early effort was conducted in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office, and others.
As part of this project, National Geographic worked with three “testbed” projects that were selected to represent different categories of networked field study. They were (1) FrogWatch USA, at the time run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, (2) Project Budburst, run by the GLOBE Program and Chicago Botanic Garden, and (3) Trash Free Potomac, run by the Alice Ferguson Foundation.
This research and development project brought FieldScope to a greater level of functionality, which allowed the platform to meet the data entry, storage, and analysis needs of a diverse set of programs and platform users. The project also demonstrated FieldScope’s ease of usability for project organizers, project participants, teachers, and students. During this time, National Geographic obtained funding from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)3 to expand the Chesapeake Bay water quality initiative to the entire 7-state Chesapeake watershed through improved educational materials and large-scale teacher professional development in each state.
2015 - 2019: In 2014, Dr. Edelson left the National Geographic Society and became the Executive Director of BSCS Science Learning. One year later, BSCS acquired the FieldScope software and name from the National Geographic Society. With the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, BSCS launched an initiative to modernize the FieldScope software for the mobile age and increase its usefulness for a broader audience. Under BSCS, FieldScope has been redesigned to meet the needs of three overlapping audiences with distinct needs: (1) institution-led participatory science projects (often referred to as citizen science projects), (2) K-12 educators and their students, and (3) grassroots community science projects. Key design, research, and development partners in this effort have been Inquirium, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Blue Dragonfly Labs, and Element 84 (formerly Azavea).
2020-2021: In 2020, with the help of funding from the Pisces Foundation, BSCS Science Learning released Invitations to Inquiry with FieldScope, activities in which students use citizen and community science data sets uploaded to FieldScope to grow their skills in data literacy over the course of 2-4 days of learning. As the world came to a halt with the global COVID-19 pandemic, members of the BSCS Science Learning and FieldScope teams came together to adjust the Invitations to Inquiry to provide self-directed versions that could be completed at home with minimal teacher guidance, so students learning virtually still had the chance to analyze real data.
Also in 2020, the FieldScope product team at BSCS Science Learning, led by Program Manager Sean O’Connor, completed a major upgrade and re-launch of the FieldScope tool, modernizing the user interface, adding new features project managers can use to manage groups and data as well as improved tools for visualizing and analyzing data.
2022: 2022 saw the augmentation of the Invitations to Inquiry with FieldScope to allow for even more data analysis. Soon after, the FieldScope team said farewell to Sean O’Connor and welcomed Jessica Bean, leader of the Understanding Global Change Project at the Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley, as a Research Affiliate and integral part of our outreach work.
2023 and Beyond: Under the leadership of Jessica Bean, the FieldScope team is now exploring ways to make the platform more user friendly, customizable, and dynamic. We are focusing on platform updates and resources that will help organizers to take ownership of their projects, interact with their participants, and share their data stories. The FieldScope team also co-designs workshops and events with projects across the country to support project leaders and participants in designing data collection protocols, exploring data, and determining what questions we want to and can answer to further our understanding of the world around us. Stay tuned as we continue to expand our reach and refine the FieldScope resources!
Student Analysis of Data Driving Learning about the Earth: A Next Generation GLOBE Project. Daniel Edelson (PI); Kemi Jona, David Maidment (co-PI’s). National Science Foundation GLOBE Program (GEO-0627923) 8/06-7/12. $1.2M.
National Geographic FieldScope. Daniel Edelson, PI. National Science Foundation, Informal Science Education Program (DRL-1010749) 9/10-12/15. $2.8M. (7/1/2012-6/30/2014)
Chesapeake Watershed Education Scale-Up: A Partnership for Geographic and Environmental Science Literacy. Kathleen Schwille, PI; Daniel C. Edelson, Co-PI. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce (Award no. NA12SEC0080021). 7/12-6/14. $1.9M.
