Aquademia published our article titled An Evaluation of Best Practices in an Air Quality Student Science Project in Ethiopia.
The publication is based on my students’ data from October 2019 – January 2020. We evaluated this practical course’s educational and scientific outcomes to see if combining research and teaching is feasible in Ethiopia’s public university context. Spoiler: it is.
We speak about ‘student science’ to keep a strong link with ‘citizen science’ (science done by non-scientists), but to stress that it is with students. The benefit of this approach is that, contrary to other citizens, university students are supposed to learn about doing research. Therefore, involving students in conducting research has both benefits for the research field and for the students’ education. I am planning to keep applying this method, and I hope that others at Ethiopian universities will start applying it as well. In a country with both theoretical education and limited research resources, student science is a win-win.