MindHive: An Online Citizen Science Tool and Curriculum for Human Brain and Behavior Research

MindHive is an online, open science, citizen science platform co-designed by a team of educational researchers, teachers, cognitive and social scientists, UX researchers, community organizers, and software developers to support real-world brain and behavior research for (a) high school students and teachers who seek authentic STEM research experiences, (b) neuroscientists and cognitive/social psychologists who seek to address their research questions outside of the lab, and (c) community-based organizations who seek to conduct grassroots, science-based research for policy change. In the high school classroom, students engage with lessons and studies created by cognitive and social neuroscientists, provide peer feedback on studies designed by students within a network of schools across the country, and develop and carry out their own online citizen science studies. By guiding them through both discovery (student-as-participant) and creation (student-as-scientist) stages of citizen science inquiry, MindHive aims to help learners and communities both inside and beyond the classroom to contextualize their own cognition and social behavior within population-wide patterns; to formulate generalizable and testable research questions; and to derive implications from findings and translate these into personal and social action.

Dikker, S., Shevchenko, Y., Burgas, K., Chaloner, K., Sole, M., Yetman-Michaelson, L., Davidesco, I., Martin, R., Matuk, C. (2022). MindHive: An online citizen science tool and curriculum for human brain and behavior research. Connected Science Learning, 4(2).