B) Live streaming nest boxes promotes equitable
opportunities among students
Live streaming active bird nests may help all students access nature,
regardless of the specific COVID-19 restrictions in place in their
region or of their specific home situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has
universally impacted the daily routines of people from all geographical
locations and socioeconomic backgrounds, but to different degrees,
making some outdoor activities such as bird watching more or less
accessible. Here, we suggest that live streaming nest boxes and teaching
lessons centered around these virtual field trips may help to give all
students, regardless of their specific situations, the opportunity to
experience nature and learn about bird biology.
In Ithaca specifically, playgrounds and children’s gardens were closed
for many months due to COVID-19, making it more challenging for children
to spend time outside in public places. Despite these closures, Ithaca
is a rural college town in upstate New York surrounded by natural areas,
and there are still many outdoor spaces available for socially-distanced
use. We recognize that limitations on outdoor activities are more severe
in urban areas. Before COVID-19 restrictions were put in place, children
from urban communities already had less physical contact with nature
than those from rural communities. Urban youths are at higher risk for
“extinction of experience,” whereby a lack of physical contact and/or
emotional connection with nature causes neutral or negative attitudes
towards ecological issues (Pyle, 1993; Soga & Gaston, 2016). COVID-19
has likely further restricted urban children’s access to the outdoors;
cities have denser populations, making it harder to go outside without
risking contact with others. Therefore, though we implemented our
program in a rural region, we recommend virtual field trips using nest
boxes as one possible solution to the lack of nature access for urban
students. All students can participate regardless of their geographical
location, promoting equitable learning opportunities and building
appreciation for nature.
In addition to exacerbating outdoor access disparities between urban and
rural students, COVID-19 may also make it harder for some students to
access the outdoors based on their living situations. Students likely
face varying abilities to leave their homes due to guardian
responsibilities or family health issues. NestWatch’s nest box
monitoring code of conduct suggests that children should always be
accompanied by an adult when observing bird nests (“How to
NestWatch”). This creates inequitable access to the outdoors among
young students because some may have guardians who are essential
workers, and therefore unable to prioritize taking their children
outside on bird watching expeditions. Additionally, some students may be
completely unable to leave their homes because they must protect family
members who are at health risk. Virtual nest box visits provide all
students, regardless of their specific home situations, the opportunity
to see wild birds.
Even after COVID-19 becomes a lesser threat, these virtual learning
experiences will still provide avenues for equitable learning
opportunities for students. For example, students living in urban
regions will still have less access to green space and nature
experiences compared to those living in rural regions, and virtual
lessons with live-streamed nest boxes could continue to provide
important exposure to nature for all students.
4. Limitations :
We have highlighted the benefits of using nest boxes as teaching tools
during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, but we recognize that this form
of virtual outreach has limitations. Virtual instruction creates
inequities in and of itself. In order for students to access or
participate in virtual lessons, they must have reliable internet access
and a computer. When social distancing restrictions are lifted, these
barriers could be addressed by encouraging students to go to their local
libraries. Funding could also be allocated so that schools could provide
each student with a portable computer to take home with them.
5. Call to Action :
We make a call for local institutions and/or research groups to
establish partnerships with local elementary schools, such as following
a virtual engagement plan as we have described above. Virtual field
trips increase access to the outdoors regardless of social distancing
restrictions. Even if such a partnership is not feasible, nest box
monitoring is possible. Nationwide nest box monitoring programs such as
NestWatch allow the general public to contribute to breeding bird
surveys through citizen science data collection. Teachers, local
conservation organizations, or parents/guardians can install nest boxes
at their private residences or properties to create this type of program
without explicit partnership from research institutions. The pandemic
has made interactions with nature and each other difficult, and we
recommend virtual nest box monitoring as a way for scientists to support
their local communities and promote connectedness between people and
nature during this socially-distanced era.
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Conflict of Interest : The authors declare no competing
interests.
Data Accessibility Statement : We do not present any data in
this paper.
Author Contributions : Jennifer Houtz :
Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Methodology
(equal); Project administration (equal); Writing‐original draft (equal);
Writing‐review & editing (equal). Rachael Mady :
Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Methodology
(equal); Project administration (equal); Writing‐original draft (equal);
Writing‐review & editing (equal). Jennifer Uehling :
Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Methodology
(equal); Project administration (equal); Writing‐original draft (equal);
Writing‐review & editing (equal).
Acknowledgements : Thank you to the fifth-grade students and
teachers at Belle Sherman Elementary School for their partnership with
us over the past four years. Thank you as well to the other graduate
students and postdocs who volunteered their time to help us run some of
the activities. Thank you to Maren Vitousek and Michelle Smith for
feedback on this outreach program and this manuscript. Outreach
materials were funded by a Cornell College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences Alumni Association Grant (to JLH, RM, and JJU) and NSF-IOS
1457251 (to Maren Vitousek).