Title : A virtual bird’s eye view: Live streaming nest boxes to
continue outreach in the era of COVID-19
Authors : Jennifer L. Houtz1,2¶, Rachael
Mady2,3¶, Jennifer J. Uehling1,2*¶
Author Affiliations :
1Cornell University Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology, 215 Tower Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14853
2Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.,
Ithaca, NY, 14850
3Cornell University Department of Natural Resources,
111 Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853
*Corresponding author email: jju8@cornell.edu
¶These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract :
COVID-19 created a host of challenges for science education; in our
case, the pandemic halted our in-person elementary school outreach
project on bird biology. This project was designed as a year-long
program to teach fifth grade students in Ithaca, New York, USA about
bird ecology and biodiversity, using outdoor demonstrations and
in-person games and activities to engage students in nature. As a
central part of this effort, we set up nest boxes on school property and
had planned to monitor them with students during bird breeding in the
spring. Here, we describe our experiences transitioning this program
online: we live streamed nest boxes to students’ virtual classrooms and
used them as starting points for virtual lessons on bird breeding and
nestling development. We suggest that instituting similar programs at
local schools can promote equitable learning opportunities for students
across geographical locations and with various living situations. In an
era of social distancing and isolation, we propose that nest box live
streaming and virtual lessons can support local communities by providing
access to the outdoors and unconventional science learning opportunities
for all students.
Keywords : nest box, live stream, science outreach, cavity
nesters
1. Introduction :
While the COVID-19 shutdown created
significant limitations for science education, it simultaneously created
new opportunities for outreach to the general public via virtual
platforms. Here, we share our perspective on transitioning a bird
ecology and biodiversity outreach project online to provide insight for
others who may be transitioning outreach programs to virtual formats. We
initially created this outreach program for fifth graders with the goals
of increasing general knowledge about birds and biodiversity, fostering
long-term appreciation for nature, and introducing field ecology as a
potential career option to young students. Prior to the COVID-19
shutdown, we set up nest boxes at a local elementary school as a
teaching tool for this outreach program, and had been using them as a
springboard for lessons about bird biology and behavior. In addition to
providing teaching opportunities, these nest boxes also provided
breeding habitat for cavity-nesting birds. After the school’s
instruction transitioned online, we continued to visit the fifth grade
classrooms virtually. We found that the nest boxes were an ideal focal
point for virtual instruction, allowing us to teach the students about
bird breeding and biology and take them on virtual “field trips” to
check on the status of the boxes and the birds that occupied them.
Nest boxes can facilitate a transition from in-person to virtual science
outreach, or the initiation of a virtual outreach project. They can be
placed in almost any community space and easily filmed with an attached
or mobile camera, including those found on smartphones. Virtual
community outreach projects can make access to science education and
nature more equitable for all students. Additionally, such projects can
promote a sense of community during a time when feelings of
connectedness are highly important. Below, we describe our process of
transitioning outreach to a virtual format and discuss how virtual
outreach may promote more equitable outdoor education opportunities. We
encourage others to consider similar courses of action to support local
communities during COVID-19 and beyond.
2. Project Initiation and Interruption from COVID-19 :
We started the fifth-grade outreach program “A Bird’s Eye View” four
years ago as part of a volunteer program for Cornell graduate students:
Cornell Graduate Student School Outreach Program (GRASSHOPR). Through
the program, we were matched with the fifth-grade teachers at Belle
Sherman Elementary School in Ithaca, New York, USA, and over the course
of three years built our relationship with the teachers. In the fourth
year of outreach, with the teachers’ support, we decided to expand the
program outside of GRASSHOPR. We did so by adding fieldwork components,
planning visits throughout the entire school year, and working to
establish community engagement in and excitement about bird habitat
creation.
As part of our new and expanded “A Bird’s Eye View” program in the
2019-2020 school year, we planned visits to Belle Sherman across the
academic year so that we could teach students about birds’ annual cycles
and maintain a connection with them. As we planned our lessons, we
focused on establishing a sense of connection between the students and
the birds around their school. Belle Sherman is located next to open
fields and a small wooded area with a short nature trail. As scientists
who study cavity nesters, we realized that this could be the ideal
habitat for nest boxes to attract cavity-nesting birds such as tree
swallows (Tachycineta bicolor ), black-capped chickadees
(Poecile atricapillus ), Eastern bluebirds (Sialis sialis ),
and house wrens (Troglodytes aedon ). Nest boxes are commonly used
by researchers to study these species (Willner et al., 1983; Brennan et
al., 1999; Vitousek et al., 2018), and are also frequently used by the
general public to attract cavity-nesting birds to their properties. We
designed lesson plans around exploring local bird diversity on Belle
Sherman’s campus and setting up nest boxes for the students and teachers
to monitor.
We taught four in-person lessons over the course of the fall and winter.
Our first two lessons focused on exploring bird biodiversity, ecology,
and field methods; we showed students tools used by ornithologists to
study birds, such as mist-nets, banding pliers, bands, and measurement
tools. We also used mist-nets to capture birds near the wooded area and
demonstrated bird handling and banding techniques. In our third lesson,
we taught the students about bird annual cycles and nests, and had
students decorate pre-made nest boxes with permanent markers as a way to
increase student involvement and interest in the project (Figure 1). We
set up these nest boxes around the school’s campus, situating them along
the edge of the school’s fields and in the woods by the aforementioned
trail. In our fourth lesson, we taught students about migration, aiming
to get them excited about the migratory birds that would soon be
returning to Ithaca while also describing the difficulties of migration,
especially anthropogenic impacts (i.e., building collisions). As part of
this lesson, we played a migration game during which students rolled
dice to determine their fates as they navigated the many challenges of
their mock “migration” across the classroom. For example, based on the
numbers they rolled, some students were blown off course or eaten by
outdoor cats, whereas others successfully completed their migrations and
raised nestlings. Unfortunately, this migration lesson marked our final
in-person visit because the COVID-19 shutdown and full transition to
online learning occurred shortly after.
3. Transition to Virtual Outreach :
Although there were no expectations to continue the program, we were
inspired by the efforts of different organizations to adapt to virtual
outreach and education, both pre-COVID-19 and during the pandemic. For
example, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed education materials
around their online Bird Cams (Fee, Betancourt, & Fitzgerald, 2015),
allowing teachers and students to connect with nature virtually. Using
our phones, we could similarly live stream the nest boxes used by birds
as a virtual “field trip.”
With the nest boxes as the anchor, we taught two virtual lessons,
adapting our lesson plans on bird breeding and nestling development.
Both lessons incorporated live streamed “field trips” to check the
contents of the nest boxes. However, we still needed to find ways to
engage the students in learning about biology over a digital platform,
beyond simply showing them live footage. We could no longer use
“think-pair-share” (Lyman, 1981) or activities such as our migration
game that involved students physically moving around the classroom, so
we explored other avenues for engagement. Inspired by online question
and answer webinars, for each lesson, we shared a Google Form with the
students ahead of time to give them the opportunity to ask questions and
share their thoughts.
For the breeding birds lesson, students were asked to watch a video of
an American robin (Turdus migratorius ) from the Cornell Lab Bird
Cams (“Life on the Ledge: 2017 American Robin Cam Highlights”)
depicting different stages of the breeding cycle. Students anonymously
submitted questions about adult and nestling behaviors such as fecal sac
removal, nestling begging responses, and feeding rates. We next asked
students to guess which species of cavity-nesting bird they thought
nested in the Belle Sherman nest boxes, given the choices of
black-capped chickadee, European starling, Eastern bluebird, or tree
swallow.
For the nestling development lesson, students watched a video of an
adult barred owl (Strix varia ) feeding its nestlings (“From Box
to Branch: 2017 Barred Owl Cam Highlights”). We asked the students to
compare and contrast which food items are consumed by nestling owls
versus black-capped chickadees, given the choices of worms, flying
insects, other birds, squirrels, and berries. This lesson focused on the
nestling developmental trajectory (e.g., hatchling to nestling to
fledgling) and dietary strategies such as carnivory and frugivory.
Students asked questions about sibling competition, mass gain, and the
role of adult males in nestling care.
We began each virtual lesson with a Google Slides presentation that
included key terminology (e.g., altricial vs. precocial) and answers to
student questions submitted on the Google Form. Using our smartphones,
we then live streamed the inside of the nest boxes over Google Meet. Of
the twelve nest boxes we installed, two were used by black-capped
chickadees, two by house wrens, and one by Eastern bluebirds. With the
timing of our lessons, we were able to live stream video of chickadee
eggs and nestlings and house wren eggs. We discussed how to identify
different species based on nesting material and egg color. We reinforced
the material at the end of each lesson with a “which bird are you”
quiz for the breeding birds lesson and a dietary strategy guessing game
for the nestling development lesson. Students actively participated by
writing answers down and sharing their results in the Google Meet chat
window or holding up their answer to the video camera, and we were able
to summarize and communicate species differences in an interactive way.
In addition to their pre-submitted questions, students could ask
on-the-spot questions during the live stream of the nest boxes and
access the presentation slides afterwards. We found that by allowing
students to engage with the material ahead of, during, and after the
lesson, we could accommodate different learning styles (Campbell et al.,
1999). Previous work on online asynchronous discussions has found that
it encourages students who may not have participated in a classroom to
engage with the material (Comer & Lenaghan, 2013). We also suspect that
by incorporating asynchronous material like the Google Form and
presentation slides, students unable to attend the live lesson were
still able to learn this material at different times.
4. Lessons Learned and Future Steps :
In adapting our in-person lesson plans to be virtual, we realized that
nest box monitoring (A) offers a flexible ecological teaching tool for
educators and (B) creates opportunities for all students to engage with
nature, regardless of their ability to go outdoors in person.