When starting out on Decipher My Data – Flu! we set ourselves some high targets whilst embracing a lot unknown factors. We didn’t predict that the lowest levels of flu for 25 years would be a factor, but it was. That combined with dealing with unexpected ethical issues and our own struggle to communicate the project meant we wanted to relaunch the project in time for the 2012/13 flu season.
Originally our evaluation was to focus on the educational benefits of the project, but we made the decision to focus on how to improve it and to ask if teachers would be likely to participate a second time and what changes we would need to make in order to convince them to give it another go.
We were taken aback by the support shown by teachers and through this report and our own self-reflection we have learnt a great deal.
The report is of greatest interest to us as the project team, but other science communicators and scientists looking to run citizen science project might find it of interest.