The experiences of the Micromón project in Catalonia, a case of citizen science

Abstract

The experience of the MicoMón project’s implementation in Catalonia is presented. This is a crowdsourcing proposal that adopts a learning service strategy which aims to increase the scientific culture and to encourage 4th ESO and 1st Baccalaureate students to pursue careers in science while it contributes to improve citizen information and awareness regarding one of the most important threats of global public health, the increasing decrease of effective antibiotics for the treatment of infectious diseases. In the project, students of different Biosciences and Health bachelor degrees accompanied by university Microbiology professors, bring to the high school classrooms a real research project that collects soil samples in sterile conditions and search, in the microbial diversity of the sample, for antibiotic producing bacteria. The present article also analyzes the answers to questionnaires from the different actors involved in the project, as well as, the observations made during the work sessions to evaluate the operation of this pilot test.