Middle-School Student Engagement in a Tick Testing Community Science Project

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Lyme disease is a common tickborne illness endemic to many countries, including the United States. Scientists have a role to play in disseminating public health knowledge to decrease the prevalence of tickborne disease, which can include encouraging preventive behaviors and recognizing the early signs of the disease. Middle-school students are at significant risk of developing Lyme disease and an ideal population to engage in community-based science, since these experiences provide valuable opportunities for career explorations and to extend the students’ understanding of science. Our work shows that the students can meaningfully contribute to research by generating samples that can be used to test whether the ticks contain pathogens. ABSTRACT: Studies of tickborne illness have benefited from interactions between scientists and community members. Most participants in community science projects are well-educated adults, but there are anticipated benefits from engaging younger students in research. We evaluated whether an outreach experience for rural middle-school students promoted student interest in science and resulted in the generation of samples that could be used for tick testing to assess disease risk. Middle-school students from 78 Wisconsin communities developed interdisciplinary hypotheses about the spread of Lyme disease, identified ticks, and extracted DNA from ticks to assess the prevalence of pathogens Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophillium, and Babesia microti. As a result of this intervention, students were able to successfully complete the research protocol and explain the rationale for completing the experiment. Of student participants, 84.7% reported no difficulty completing the protocol, 66% of the student samples gave reliable PCR results, and 76% of students reported interest in participating in similar experiments. Our study shows that tick outreach programs that incorporate community-based science promote knowledge about Lyme disease, facilitate engagement between students and scientists, and generate samples that can be successfully utilized for pathogen testing.