Enhancing Citizen Science Engagement Through Gamification: A Case Study of the SOCIO-BEE Project

The SOCIO-BEE project is a new way to improve Citizen Science (CS) by highlighting urban pollution and increasing public engagement in environmental science. CS lets everyone do scientific research, making collecting data and teaching people about important issues easier. However, it is hard to keep people interested and show them how important their work is. Adding game-like parts such as points, coins, and leaderboards can make it more exciting for people to stay involved, help each other out, and improve the quality of the data they collect. This study discusses creating and using GAME (Goals And Motivation Engine), a system that can be changed to fit different CS projects like SOCIO-BEE. It helps overcome the problems of keeping people interested and motivated. By looking at how SOCIO-BEE worked to improve air quality in cities across Europe through people working together, we show that adding game elements can increase how many people take part, improve how they collect data, and encourage them to care more about the environment. The big hopes for adding these game parts include making people more knowledgeable about science, including more people, and helping everyone understand environmental issues better.