6.11

We implemented a citizen science project entitled Young Adults’ Political Experience Sampling (YAPES) with 24 different high school classes in Austria.

The students participated individually, by collecting data on what kind of political topics they encounter in their everyday lives (e.g., on social media or in school). They used their smartphones to submit their observations (pictures and textual descriptions) to the project team, either via email or WhatsApp or by logging into the project’s mobile website.

We used pre- and post-questionnaires to measure how participation in the project may affect students’ science interest and efficacy, as well as their political interest and efficacy.

Some 53% participated actively in the project, while the other 47% opted out.

A total of n = 443 students completed the questionnaires at both times.

We used regression analysis to test predictors of participation and repeated measure analysis to investigate how the attitudes of participants vs. non-participants developed over the course of the 1-week project duration.