Get challenged to connect with nature!
Kids make natural scientists, photographers, artists and naturalists. Now, with its proposed “The Birds & the Bees Challenge,” a Cornell University [1] team wants to help more kids ages 7-17 enjoy these roles. In this challenge, both English- and Spanish-speaking kids will rediscover nature in their own neighborhoods and make observations of birds and bees, adding those observations to national databases that help scientists learn more about issues of conservation concern.
Every season could bring a new challenge focused on going outdoors, each highlighted in a colorful video from Blue Man Group [2] and distributed via social networking sites online. A free bi-lingual kit would provide materials to meet each of these challenges, including posters and seeds for planting. Kids would get to:
- Contribute images and videos of nature to the Encyclopedia of Life [3], an online project gathering information about all life on Earth
- Watch and count birds in urban neighborhoods, reporting observations online via the Celebrate Urban Birds [4] project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Identify and count bees to help scientists understand the challenges those bees face for The Great Sunflower Project [5] of San Francisco State University.
- Use cell phones, the Internet, video, photography, storytelling, the arts and gardening to connect with nature
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Celebrate Urban Birds” program plans to administer The Birds & the Bees Challenge, with customized local celebrations created by thousands of participating schools, after-school programs, churches, rehabilitation and recovery agencies, businesses, museums, nature centers and parks across the U.S. Importantly, these partners reach kids and families from diverse backgrounds, including different ethnicities, cultures and economic circumstances.
To throw open this challenge for more kids across the country, we need your support. Please join us!
