Urban Bird Gardens Final Report - Cornell Lab of Ornithology ...

Overview
Th The Cornell C ll Lab L b of f Ornithology O ith l embarked b k d on Urban U b Bird Bi d Gardens, G d a planning l i grant t funded f d d by b NSF to t
inform citizen science efforts targeting Latino families in six major U.S. cities. Garibay Group worked with
CLO staff to conduct front-end research with targeted Latino communities. The goal of this research was
to gain in-depth understanding of Latino families living in these communities and their perspectives on
citizen science.
Research focused specifically on
understanding Latino families’ cultural
values and norms regarding leisure
choices, attitudes toward science, use
of technology, and responses to (and
interest in) citizen science.
Methods h d
Methods for this study included the
development of community profiles,
focus groups with parents and youth,
and community partner interviews.
This research was grounded in
culturally lt ll responsive i approaches h
(Frierson, Hood, and Hughes, 2002).
In culturally responsive research and
evaluation, the researcher considers
the culture and context of participants
and of the program to be critical
dimensions that inform every aspect
of the research project.
An important aspect of this approach
is the inclusion of stakeholder groups,
in as authentic a way as possible,
throughout the project—in this case
families from the six communities and
community partners.
Community Profiles
As a first step in the research, Garibay
Group staff developed “community
profiles” from census data as well as
other published research on Latino
communities in the six target
communities. While much of this
research was demographic in nature, the
process was important in teasing out the
nuances among the significantly diverse
Latino communities in the U.S. and
ensuring a general understanding of
community contexts, including
similarities and differences. This
component of the research, for example,
provided data on the percentages of
Latino sub-groups in the area by
nationality, education levels, and other
socio-economic factors. (Community
profiles are part of a separate report
generated for the project and are not
included here.)
Focus Groups
Focus groups are a type of social
research that rely and draw on
respondents’ personal experiences in
order to understand participants’
p p
perspectives, attitudes, and ideas about
a topic or issue (Krueger, 1998; Powell
Project partners included six
community organizations:
Aspira of Florida, Inc.
(Miami)
Chicanos por la Causa, Inc.
(Phoenix)
Children's Museum of
Houston (Houston)
Corazón Community Center
(Chicago)
New York Restoration Project
(New York)
Youth Policy Institute (Los
Angeles)
Garibay Group │ Urban Bird Gardens Front-end Evaluation │ Summer 2009 1