Other activities that replaced in-person field activities
Four of the eight field projects did not incorporate online participatory science projects. Two of these activities were short online research projects. The activity on California soils and geography asked the students to research a Superfund site (https://www.epa.gov/superfund) in their hometown or place of residence. The activity on land management asked students to research a California land trust active in their hometown or place of residence (e.g., California Council of Land Trusts; https://www.calandtrusts.org/).
Two other activities involved outdoor field observations not linked to a participatory science project. One of these was the first day’s introductory activity of an urban ecology scavenger hunt in which students ‘collected’ ecological interactions in their backyard or neighborhood (e.g., an interaction between an animal and a plant; a mutualistic interaction, etc.). Many students completed this activity without leaving their yard; indeed, the smaller spatial scale inspired additional creativity for some of the more uncommon scavenger hunt ‘items.’ The second of these activities was an audio identification activity for local birds. This activity was developed specifically because several students had commented in their first sit spot observation that they heard birds they could not identify. The instructor brought in a guest speaker who has experience in teaching ‘birding by ear’ to help students practice describing bird calls and identifying common birds solely by their sounds. The activity for the week then focused on audio recordings from the student’s sit spot in which they identified bird calls, other biotic sounds (e.g., squirrels), and anthropogenic sounds (e.g., cars, construction).