The Bird Cams Lab Experience: What We Learned From External Evaluation
October 21, 2021
During 2018–21, people from around the world teamed up with one another and scientists to learn more about birds on the Cornell Lab’s Bird Cams.
Figure 1. The locations of Bird Cams Lab participants for the last four investigations: Cornell Feeders Live, Battling Birds: Panama, Hawk Happenings, and Panama Live.
We invited everyone, regardless of prior knowledge or experience, to engage at any or all stages of the scientific process: observation, question design, data collection, data exploration, and reporting. More than 16,000 people joined the project.
This year, we worked with an external evaluation team from Rockman et al. to understand participant experiences and how participation in the co-created process relates to learning and behavior outcomes.
We are thrilled to share what the evaluation team found from the last three Bird Cams Lab investigations: Cornell Feeders Live, Battling Birds: Panama, and Hawk Happenings.
Want to learn more?
Check out the full evaluation report by Rockman et al on InformalScience.org. We thank all participants for sharing their time, data, and insights to help advance a new model for scientific discovery and learning through online co-created investigations.
Photo credit: Red-winged Blackbird male by Jeff Bleam / Macaulay Library; Red-winged Blackbird female by David Bohrer / Macaulay Library