Announcing Recipients of the Participatory Sciences Microgrants

Urban tree cover benefits our community by cooling temperatures, protecting water and air quality, enhancing biodiversity, and creating recreational spaces that improve our quality of life and support physical and mental well-being. However, invasive species, poor management, pollution, and other stressors can harm the health of these urban forests, reducing their ability to provide these services. These troubles likely have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, such as minority and low-income areas, which are communities that may already experience higher levels of environmental burdens. This project, which relies on the active participation of local volunteers, aims to address this issue by involving community members and engaging them in a trash collection initiative along sections of the greenway, assessing the cleanliness and condition of these natural areas. By analyzing trash levels under the scope of the Social Vulnerability Index (CDC/ATSDR SVI), this project aims to identify patterns of environmental injustice within these public spaces. The findings will be shared with local organizations and city management to promote and support initiatives that protect and improve these green areas while reinforcing the idea of the community protecting their urban spaces. Ultimately, this project seeks to foster community involvement and strengthen public connection to the “City of Oaks,” ensuring that our urban forests can thrive and continue to provide vital services for all residents.

This project aims to engage students and volunteers in pilot testing the use of “tampling” to screen for wastewater contamination and prioritize areas for E. coli testing. “Tampling” devices are a cost-effective technique to detect wastewater contamination in waterways. Tampling is a DIY method that uses affordable materials like all-natural organic tampons, black lights, plastic bottles, and string to detect the presence of optical brighteners (OBs), a chemical found in detergents and laundry wastewater. Funding from this microgrant will assist in purchasing the materials for tampling and E. coli testing, and provide hourly pay for undergraduate students to assist in building and positing the devices on campus and with volunteers. The project will center on supporting communities interested in adopting an early warning system for human sewage in their waterways.

Decades of research in public understanding of science has identified key dimensions of the relationship between people and science. As science becomes increasingly politicized, polarized, and contested, researchers are still struggling to conceptualize and evaluate one key dimension of that relationship – public trust in science. This participatory science project uses Photovoice methodology to explore and understand the cultural meanings of science and trustworthiness in rural communities of Eastern North Carolina, which consist primarily of people of color, lower socio-economic status, conservative ideologies, and religious ideologies who historically experience strained relations with science. Rural communities are underserved and underrepresented in public trust in science research and represent a clear disparity in goals to foster a positive public relationship with science.

Conceptualizations of ‘trust’, ‘science’, and ‘trust in science’ are highly variable in theory, application, and operationalization. Little to no research exists on understanding the cultural meaning of ‘science’ or key attributes of its trustworthiness to various segments of the public. To cultivate, maintain, and repair public trust in science, there is a salient need to ground our conceptual understanding of public trust in science in sound theory and the cultural context of communities experiencing strain. The goal of this study is to engage members of a rural community in eastern North Carolina in a photovoice project that will generate discussion and dialogue that explores their experiences with science, how they define the meaning and relevance of science in their lives, and how they define and attribute trustworthiness to science and scientists.