Semi-Annual Grant Reporting (July 2018) Xperibird.Be Project Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences

Semi-Annual Grant Reporting (July 2018) XperiBIRD.be project Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences

There are two 6-month report periods each year, ending January 31 and July 31. Please submit Part A (narrative reporting) for each grant reporting period until all grant funds have been exhausted. Submit Part B (financial and impact evaluation) only once each year, during whichever reporting cycle is more convenient for your organization. If you have any questions, [email protected] is happy to help!

If all funds have been spent and this is your final report, please indicate this in the space below and attach a narrative summarizing the results of the grant (including progress, lessons learned, and key metrics).

Report date : July 2018 Is this the final report for your grant?? NO

PART A Organization Information

Name “Friends of the RBINS” asbl - Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Address Vautierstreet, 29 1000 Brussels

Fiscal Year End Date 15 December

Point of Contact Name: Pierre Coulon Title: Director Public Services / Educational Service Email Address: [email protected] Phone #: +32 (0)2 627 42 25

Grant Information

Effective Date 2015.12.23

Term (eg. 2 years) 3 years

Amount €681,375

Big Idea An educational network that monitors the nesting of tits at schools across Belgium: Experience the journey from egg to flight!

Project Summary XperiBIRD.be is an educational project set up through the partnership (2-3 sentences) between the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) and Google.org. It aims to distribute nest boxes equipped with a camera and a

nano-computer to schools and educational partners across Belgium. The kit will allow children from the final year of primary school (10–11 year olds) to the second year of secondary school (13–14 year olds) to follow the nesting of garden birds such as great or blue titmice. The aim is to stimulate their interest in sciences and new information technologies and to collect a large amount of data about nesting habits of passerine birds across Belgium. Those data will be studied by the scientists of the Operational Directorate Natural Environment (Ornithology) of the Museum.

Note: There are no word count minimums or maximums for the following questions, but around 50-200 words per question should work well.

Summary What were your main objectives during this reporting period? 1. Second campaign: 200 new kits distributed ○ Distribution of the last kits 2017-18 ○ Installation of the kit and use of the camera 2. Support to schools during the nesting period ○ Communication ○ Website ○ Monitor and improve the XperiBIRD.be experience

Please summarize the progress you made on those objectives. 1. Second campaign: 200 new kits distributed ○ Distribution of the last kits 2017-18 From September 2017, we focused on recruiting new schools and distributing 200 new observation kits. We reached soon (on 20th September) the 100 kits attributed to French-speaking participants and most of them received their kits before the end of the year. Only few kits, distributed thanks to the XperiLAB.be truck were distributed after the winter. We reached the quota for Dutch-speaking participants only at the end of the year 2017. Therefore, a more important number of schools received their kit at the beginning of 2018 (January to February).

Figure 1: The network of XperiBIRD.be nest boxes installed (screenshot, interactive map : July 2018)

○ Installation of the kit and use of the camera After they received their XperiBIRD.be observation kit, teachers have to install it and to connect the camera themselves. To help them doing this, the installation guide had been updated (based on experience and comments of the first edition participants). And we promoted (via e-mail and on the website) the use of our video tutorial guiding them through the whole installation process, step by step. We provided also an “Helpdesk” via e-mail or phone. We encouraged all participants to test the material well in advance, viz. well before the nesting season, and to contact us as soon as possible if they encounter any problem. All technical problems were tracked and gathered in a common shared document. When a camera was not functional, we always tried first to solve the problem via e-mail or phone call, but sometimes we had to ask the school to send back the electronic material. Then the repaired (or a new) camera was sent back to the school. The defect cameras we were not able to fix ourselves were sent back to Naturebytes, our electronic material provider. In total, from 200 kits distributed, at least 115 were installed. From which at least 45 were used by a couple of blue or great tit during the nesting season. We rely on the data filled on the website by the schools, but we suspect more bird boxes were installed and used by birds, but that all schools didn’t enter their observation data yet.

2. Support the schools during the nesting period ○ Communication Most of the communication with the schools has been done via e-mails. We sent from 1 to 3 e-mails per month prior to /during and after the nesting period. Those e-mails were containing important information regarding the actions to be undertaken, reminders on the importance to geo-localized the nest box and enter their observation data, etc. We emphasis on the importance to contact us as soon as possible if they encountered any technical issues. Most of the problems could have been solved thanks to instructions sent by e-mail or given by phone.

○ Website During this period, only few modifications were made on the website since it appeared to be already quite complete, based on the experience of the first nesting period. We had to create accounts on the website for new users, and login / password were sent via e-mail in January. We updated on a regular basis the website. For example, different documents were uploaded in the “documentation” page in the User section. So that participants can easily find all material related to installation and use of the kit, as well as manuals on how to use the website, and last but not least, different kind of didactic documents in order to conduct activities around XperiBIRD.be with their pupils. Thanks to the help of a student doing his internship at the museum we were able to publish regularly news on the homepage. Those articles related key moments of the breeding season and were relayed via social media as well.

Figure 2: The News section of XperiBIRD.be website has been regularly updated

This year, it was also possible to differentiate occupied nest boxes from empty nest boxes on the interactive map! Whenever a school completed the “nesting species” field in the nesting data form, the nest box changed from green to yellow on the map!

Figure 3: Interactive map showing empty nest boxes (screenshot, July 2018)

○ Monitor and improve the XperiBIRD.be experience At the end of the school year 2017, we designed two surveys, in collaboration with the Google team (regarding the STEMS) and the DITOS team (EU Horizon 2020 project aimed to measure the impact of various participative sciences activities). This year, these surveys have been updated by the XperiBIRD.be team and sent to all participants during the month of June. This time, a Google form has been designed for pupils as well in addition to the paper version of the survey (in order to increase the number of responses). So far, we collected a total of 74 forms from teachers (38 from Dutch-speaking and 36 from French-speaking participants) and 78 students surveys (from 3 French-speaking schools). The data collected through the two questionnaires will be analyzed during this summer and should help us to improve / ease the experience of the participants. We plan to reiterate the experience next year in order to monitor the impact of the project and to consolidate the results obtained.

Do you anticipate any major changes in the next phase of the project? No major changes are foreseen for the future, as the project runs fine. Some practical aspects could nevertheless be improved but don’t consist in major changes (see § “Learning from failures”).

On the other hand, we intend to extend the project duration to a third breeding season, what is a substantial change and improvement of the global work schedule. The project original timing (and granting) was ending in December 2018. At that time, we will have 2 bird nesting datasets corresponding to 2 breeding seasons, namely spring 2017 and spring 2018. The 2018 last months were thus supposed to be dedicated to different conclusive tasks: ● Optimize the number of data: cleaning of database, direct dialog with schools to encourage them to “finish the job”… ● scientific analysis by ornithologists, reporting… ● Recuperation of “dormant” material ● etc… However, the success of the campaign, the numerous demands from new schools eager to participate conducted us to extend the project to a 3rd breeding season and thus a third distribution of birdbox during this winter in order to be ready for spring 2019. Thanks to a Google Belgium financial help to buy more material and support the distribution fees and thank to a complementary grant from Google.org via the TIDE foundation, we are capable to guarantee the distribution of 250 supplementary kits to reach a total of 650 connected birdbox spread over Belgian territory. In consequences, most of the data treatment and analysis will be delayed to the summer 2019, provisional end date of the project.

We can therefore expect small changes in the next phases of the project, due to more questions / requests from teachers than last years. However we will try to improve the communication towards participants thanks to those two years of experience and we aim to offer the same quality of service to all participants. Similarly, thanks to our previous experience and a better timing in the delivery of the kits, we expect less nest box to be unoccupied / uninstalled during the breeding season. Since the network of participants will reach more than 600 participants this year, the blog should be even more active and we would like to involve non-participants to visit the website and follow the schools.

We would like to strengthen partnership with ringers, so that more birds born in an XperiBIRD.be nest box could be scientifically tagged (ringed). We hope also to involve more classes to enter their observation data, by emphasis on the citizen science dimension of XperiBIRD.be. These observation data will be valorized by the scientists of the museum so that we could communicate the results to the participants in scientific and popularized way. We should also think about / prepare the future of the XperiBIRD.be project after these three years of Google grant. 1. Improve the communication towards participants Thanks to the analysis of the responses given to our surveys sent at the end of the school year we expect to be able to identify any problems encountered by users and we will do our best to even more finely tune the running of XperiBIRD.be for next season. Unless the higher number of participants, we expect less technical problems and difficulties to understand manuals / tutorials since several technical weaknesses and inaccuracies of the instructions have been improved and we hope that users will encounter less problems. We will update the different manuals during the summer. We aim to give more explanations and instructions on what to do with their kit around the year. This should lead to better timing in the installation of the camera, more appropriate capture mode, etc. and so a better experience for users. All information will be gathered on the “Documents” page in the User section. And we will continue to emphasis on the importance to contact us as soon as they have a problem. Moreover, we will organize, like the past two years, an “XperiBIRD.be day” for new participants and participants of previous editions during the month October. We think that this kind of events is very important to strengthen the XperiBIRD.be network and is the best way to train / inform teachers on the project. We will insist on teachers on the importance of participating in order to have as many people as possible on that day. Besides the usual communication channels, this year, all schools will also receive an XperiBIRD.be poster to hang in their class. We think this will help them to feel involved in the project and not to forget important actions to lead regarding the observation kit. The poster is designed and will be printed thanks to a partnership with the DITOS project. 2. Less unoccupied / uninstalled nest boxes. We expect fewer unoccupied nest boxes and uninstalled camera during spring 2019 since we will distribute the kits from September onwards and that instructions on how / where / when place the nest box will be improved. The teacher event will take place in October, so much earlier that the one of the first edition (that took place in mid-February). Meaning schools will have the opportunity to place the nest box before / during winter, this should significantly reduce the number of unoccupied / uninstalled nest boxes next spring. We are also contacting schools from previous editions that didn’t localized their nest box on the interactive map. This means they may have not used the material yet. If needed, we send them information on how to start the XperiBIRD.be experience, but, if they don’t want to install the material, we ask them to return us all the electronics, as soon as possible, in order to offer the camera to a school on our (long) waiting list. 3. Involve non-participant With 650 participants this year, we expect the website / YouTube channel to be even more active than last year! So it makes it interesting for non-participants to have a look / follow the blog or the interactive map. In order to reach non-participants we will continue to send press release on a regular basis (2 times per year) and will distribute flyers at special events, at the observation post of the Peregrine falcons, etc.

4. Strengthen the collaboration with the Belgian ringing Scheme We work in collaboration with the ornithologists at the RBINS, especially with BeBird, the Belgian ringing scheme, in order to ring the young tits born in the XperiBIRD.be nest boxes. This spring, about 30 nest boxes have been visited by a ringer, leading to a very nice win-win situation! This collaboration between XperiBIRD.be and BeBirds eases the work of the ringer and the kids had the opportunity to see the procedure and to get information from a ornithologist. The ringing of birds helps monitor populations. We will continue to engage classes in the ringing process of the young tits, and hope to increase the percentage of birds ringed in the coming years. 5. Emphasis the Citizen Sciences dimension of the project We upgraded manuals and communication towards participants in order to highlight the citizen sciences dimension of the project and the importance to enter their observation data, since we noticed via the surveys that this was not clear enough for some participants. We will continue to emphasis this and we are planning to produce news texts / documents that will be published on the website and on social media in order to inform participants about the citizen science dimension of the project. For sure, when the first scientific results will be published it will give even an even greater importance and an extra meaning to this dimension of the project. We will also continue to advertise about other close-related citizen sciences projects running during the school year, such as the counting of birds organized by Natagora and Natuurpunt every year in January. 6. Valorization of the observation data We would like to present to all participants some preliminary results regarding nesting birds in the XperiBIRD.be nest boxes thanks to the data entered on the website during the first and second edition. To do this, we will first need to contact schools that didn’t enter data or didn’t validate them yet. Then these updated data will be sent to scientists of the Operational Directorate Natural Environment. Nowadays, validated data are still to scarce to allow scientific conclusions regarding large scale phenomena like reproductive success of passerines, impact of the geographical area or of the climate, etc. This could only be performed with accumulated data from season two and three. However, we would like to report some figures and trends regarding the biology of the passerine birds observed within the XperiBIRD.be network: characterization and proportion of species observed, number of eggs laid down, numbers of chicks and young birds that have successfully flown away. This will be commented by scientists in perspective with the existing literature and their own experience. 7. Prepare the future of XperiBIRD.be This year is the last year of XperiBIRD.be observation kit’s distribution and training. So, in beginning of 2019, we will have an active network of 650 schools equipped with an XperiBIRD.be kit, ready to follow a new exiting nesting season! But 2019 will also be the end of the Google.org granting, meaning we have to think about how to continue to valorize on a mid-/long term this network of schools. We will study all opportunities, also in term of new partnerships and/or funding to be able to keep the project alive. We would mainly need to finance a (small) part-time worker, since the purchase and sending of the material will no longer be necessary. Similarly, the fees for website management and communication should be very low in the coming years.

Challenges Faced & Lessons Learned

We believe in learning from failure. Did you encounter any challenges or make any mistakes during the reporting period? How did you address them? 1. Still a high proportion of kits distributed via mailing Since we noticed last years that schools that received their kit via mailing were less proactive to install the kit and less participative in the exchange of data, we wanted to have less participants choosing this option. Nevertheless, even if we adapted our communication (emphasizing the great benefit every applicant would gain in participating to our info sessions included in our XperiLAB.be tour or at the museum) in order to push them to choose another option, it appears we had quite a lot of schools asking to receive it via mailing. We exclude mailing for schools located in Waals-/Flemish- Brabant and Brussels, but we cannot force more distant schools to come to the museum, located in Brussels. 2. Kits not installed A certain number of kits are still “waiting in their cardboard box” in several schools (about 50 schools never used their login to localized their nest box on the interactive map)… We noticed that schools where the kit has been ordered by the direction (and not directly by a teacher) are less likely to be installed. Schools who participated at the “XperiBIRD.be Day” are the more proactive in the installation and use of the kit, they are also very active on the website. Following us, this is explained because after this day, teachers have been reassured the observation kit is really user-friendly. Otherwise, in general, teachers are very cautious regarding technologies and are afraid to not be able to install the kit without support (other than video / printed tutorial). In most of the schools were two kits have been distributed (because the school presents two different location), only one is active. And when it’s a municipality that has applied to receive observation kits in different schools of the municipality, the follow up is lacking and most of the nest boxes are not used wisely. It’s extremely difficult to contact the schools other than by email : during the school year teachers cannot be reached during the day (they give lessons) and leave the school after 4pm. Holidays is a better time for the XperiBIRD.be team to monitor these schools (since we receive less call / emails regarding emergencies, technical problems, etc.) but then the teachers are not there. That’s why in general we favor personal email communication. It would be great to have local support from ringers, non-profit organization, etc. to help with the follow up, we already started with ringers this year, and we will continue to strengthen the XperiBIRD.be network in order to perpetuate it even after the end of the grant. We also have only little leverage to force schools to return the kit (even if it has been indicated on the document they must complete in order to receive their kit). That’s why we only received few kits back so far and that we are still dealing with recalcitrant schools. These reclaimed kits will be redistributed to new participants from our waiting list. This year, a few non-used kits were directly given to another teacher / school in the surrounding : we could propose this has an option to the schools that still needs to send their kit back. This highlights the fact that sometimes an “individual” follow up is necessary. From first to second edition, the number of participants has been doubled, and next year there will be 650 nest boxes distributed across Belgium ! But, since the project coordinator is working full time for the project and that we will continue to improve the communication towards participants, the next season should continue to run smoothly.

3. Technical issues : delay of support from technical partner. Like last year, we had to deal with a large amount of difficulties / technical problems that schools encountered with the installation / use of the electronic material. Even if the tutorials were more explicit, it’s normal that a certain amount of non-expert users need further help. However, we faced unexpected difficulties due to an unexpected technical issue, a certain amount of camera were lacking of the “download” button in the camera interface of the camera. Users were then not able to download there images, and the SD card could eventually become fast full up to 100% (leading to other technical problems). Naturebytes provided us with a tutorial and a package to download on the SD card of the camera, in order to solve this issue. But it required some abilities with technologies, so some teachers were not able to solve the problem on their own easily. When birds were not nesting in the birdhouse, we asked them to pick up the SD card from the camera and to send it to us, then we provided them with a functional one. If birds were already nesting in the birdhouse, it was not possible to reach the camera and we asked them to stop to take pictures / timelapse / detection mouvement to avoid saturation of the SD. They could then only watch live what was going on in the birdhouse. So, a certain amount of schools couldn’t enjoy the experience as much as others due to this unexpected problem. In addition, at their initiative, we kept a record of the various technical problems encountered (that we were not able to solve on our own), in a shared Google document in order to ease the problems solving, but there was sometime a long delay in their follow-up. 4. Follow up of schools : observation data form not validated Today, we are still dealing with a certain amount of non-validated (pending) forms in our database. We reminded schools to do so at the end of the school year, but we will need to remind at the end of summer as well. If a participant doesn’t validate his form, we cannot be sure the data are correct / complete. Moreover, we have to take contact with the participants who didn’t enter their data at all, in order to know if they did so because there was no nesting event in their nest box, or if they had a nesting event but didn’t enter this information (it would be interesting to know why they didn’t enter their observation data (time- consuming, no internet connection, etc.) . This year, in order to decrease the percentage of schools that didn’t validate an observation form, we added a “the nest box stayed empty” check box so they could better realized that the lack of nesting event is also valuable information.

Googler Engagement & Press 1. Audience metrics – Google Analytics We monitored the audience performances of the XperiBIRD.be website and YouTube channel using Google Data Studio. Those reports can be seen using these links: - XperiBIRD.be website Google Analytics (https://datastudio.google.com/open/1xN6xvrqs0iw843B-tmIw9dfvnH2Mv5p8) - XperiBIRD.be Youtube Channel Analytics (https://datastudio.google.com/open/1IKNE8Ckpohnw_Sq3Qwevr7f7ETKuuQU4)

At first sight it seems that our website, Youtube channel and Facebook page are doing quite well. On the website: We have so far (from mid-February 2017, when website has been associated to Google Analytics tool to today) more than 10 900 visitors on the website, from 78 different countries for a total of about 20 000 sessions. We can see a weekly-based pattern, the website is less visited during weekends, meaning that teachers are checking the website with their pupils during the week. During the Easter holidays the frequentation is deeply decreasing, as well as from June onwards.

Figure 4: Number of sessions on the website from mid-February 2017 to end Juny 2018 and showing an annual pattern. If we focus on this reporting period (Jan.17 to July 17), the mean number of sessions per day was about 50 sessions per day. We clearly see a peak in the number of sessions during the breeding period of birds. In May, during the peak of the nesting season, about 200 sessions/day have been recorder. During Easter holidays the frequentation of the website decreases dramatically.

Figure 5: Number of sessions on the website from January to mid July 2018.

Not surprisingly, the visitors of our website are majorly coming from Belgium, with more than 90% of the sessions. Then comes France and USA, with less than 2 % each. About 50% of the visitors come back are returning visitors. The users use most of the time (75% of the sessions) a computer to surf on the website. Mobile (20%) and Tablets (5%) are also used.

On the XperiBIRD.be Youtube channel there are now about 400 videos published and a total of 12 500 views. The most viewed videos are still: 1. the promotional video made by Google (1 200 views) 2. the video summary 2017 (600 views) 3. and the installation video tutorial (550 views) The watch time of the videos published on the channel (videos shared by the participants on the website or videos that we published directly on the channel) are trending just as the frequentation of the website : we can see a day by day pattern and a decreasing during holidays / after breeding season periods.

Figure 6: Watchtime on the Youtube Channel from January 2017 to mid July 2018. The Facebook page is still not really developed, even if we continue to share the link on our email communication. We have a total of 182 “Like” nowadays. So about 60 new “likes” since the last reporting

11 period. The page is used to share news, relay press hits, images shared by schools, etc. It seems that these posts don’t only reach the XperiBIRD.be community, but also a significant percentage of non-fan. Publications from the XperiBIRD.be Facebook page are also shared on the Museum account and other related partner’s pages. When a video or a post is shared thanks to the Museum account we notice a huge increase in the number of people reached. For example, the video “Terugblik op het jaar 2017-2018” has been shared via the Museum Facebook account and it helps reached more than 2.6k people.

2. Press & Engagement

Website: www.xperibird.be

Report: A brochure has been produced to be diffused during conferences / seminars of interest.

Annual report 2016 / 17 of the RBINS: a half page present the XperiBIRD.be project besides the other educative and scientific projects of the RBINS.

Flyers : Flyers (in format of a postcard) have being designed by the Communication Department of the RBINS to promote XperiBIRD.be during different events and at the observation post installed at the foot of the cathedral Saint Michel & Gudule at Brussels during the nesting period of the couple of peregrine falcons (see : http://www.falconsforeveryone.be/?lang=en).

Evaluation Report: This document “XperiBIRD.be: Increasing students’ interest in STEM & ICT education”, have be prepared by Copenhagen Economics, based on the reply of students and teachers to the Google forms sent at the end of the first edition.

Best wishes: Electronic cards were sent to partners at the end of 2017.

Events: ● Launching event on 20 September 2016, organized at the Museum by RBINS and Google.org conjointly. About 100 VIP persons and journalists were present. ● Participation to a “café in vitro” about citizen sciences at Louvain-la-Neuve. Presentations and debates for general public around different projects, among which XperiBIRD.be (The debate has been recorded and broadcast on radio, it will soon be available as a podcast). ● Event for teachers (training) on 11 February 2017 at the Museum, about 100 persons were present: presentation of the kit and sessions for questions were organized during that day. ● Activity for children at the Museum during Carnival Vacancy around birds and technologies thanks to the XperiBIRD.be kit. About 15 French speaking children assisted those two days (https://www.naturalsciences.be/fr/museum/visits-and-activities/activities-detailed-fiches/6405) ● Participation to two “Café Scientifiques” at the Museum (February and March 2017), each time, a dozen of participants participated and showed high interest about the project. (https://www.naturalsciences.be/fr/museum/visits-and-activities/activities-detailed-fiches/6259) ● Participation to the Ecsite conference, 15th-17th June at Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP) : http://www.ecsite.eu/annual-conference The XperiBIRD.be team presented a 2h workshop during the conference in a session called “Inquiry- based learning everywhere”. More than 80 participants were present in that session (a lot more than expected!), from which about 40 followed our workshop. We really were able to measure the "attractive power" of the project XperiBIRD.be. Participants were really optimistic about the project and we collected opinions and suggestions for the development of new activities using the observation kit in the classroom. Title: Inquiry-based learning everywhere Abstract: For 8 years, the Museum of natural Sciences runs a spectacular science truck, XperiLAB.be, through whole Belgium. The truck hosts 9 mini-labs aiming at experiencing the scientific method thanks to hands-on displays. A recent grant from Google.org allowed us to add the XperiBIRD.be project. A custom-designed “bird box-camera” kit is distributed to schools. So pupils observe bird nesting behavior AND collect data in a scientific way. This engages pupils, with the help of RBINS professional scientists, to participate in a real science project, with all its excitement and uncertainties. ● Event for teachers (training) on Saturday 21 October 2017 at the Museum “XperiBIRD.be Day”, about 100 persons were present: retrospective on the first year, presentation and installation of the kit sessions were organized during that day. ● Sciences Bus DITOS from 8 to 10 November 2017. The Sciences Bus of the Doing Together Science came to Brussels and we organized an XperiBIRD.be workshop on that occasion. Families and classes took part to activities around birds and made their own fat and seeds balls for birds. ● Participation to the first “Day of Citizen Science in Nature, Environment, Climate and Education” organized by the Provincial Nature Center Limburg on 16th November 2017. This event was dedicated to teachers, scientists and volunteers. We had the opportunity to present the observation kit during the “Inspiration & network market”, and thus to approach schools coming from this region, where there were initially very few XperiBIRD.be observation kits. ● Participation at the 23ste “Vlaams Congres van Leraars Wetenschappen”, on Saturday 18th November 2017, at VUB (Brussels). This event happens every year and is dedicated to Dutch- speaking teachers. Explanation about XperiBIRD.be and flyers were distributed to interested teachers. Some of them even subscribed, on their phone, to the project on the very moment!

● Participating at a reflexion day on “Numérique : dangers et opportunités pour l’ErE” (technologies opportunities and dangers in environmental education) organized by Réseau Idée asbl on 20th February 2018. The XperiBIRD.be project has been presented during a workshop (20’ presentation and 20’ Q-A) gathering about 12 participants from non-profit organization active in environmental education in Belgium. Reporting and presentation are available (in French) on: https://www.reseau-idee.be/numerique/pdf/3-ateliers-pm/3.XPERIBIRD-notes-atelier.pdf ● The half finale of the Whizzkids contest took place on 14th March 2018, in Google Brussels offices, the XperiBIRD.be team was present in order to present the project and distribute an observation kit to all participating classes as prize. About hundred persons were present. ● Participation to the CTM conference (Communicating the Museum – Brussels 2018). XperiBIRD.be has been presented during this international conference during a case-study session on 29th May 2018. We had the opportunity to present the project to a very enthusiastic (non-scientific) audience. We invited Kristina Articus, a teacher involved in XperiBIRD.be with her school – the International German school of Brussels – to talk during the session. She has been accompanied by a student of her, who presented her point of view, and their interventions were really meaningful and highly appreciated (by the audience, and by the XperiBIRD.be team). The abstract and the PowerPoint presentation can be found here.

Medias: 1. Videos - A promotional video has been produced by Google.be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVNxKk2PNI , presented at the launching event (about 1 200 views). - A video reportage have been done by BRUZZ (Brussels TV Channel) it has been broadcasted on TV and on Internet during the month of May: http://www.bruzz.be/fr/video/xperibird-des-eleves- observent-des-nichoirs - A promotional clip “Summary 2017” have been produced by the RBINS team in order to promote XperiBIRD.be on social medias (published in February 2017). - A small video “Retrospective on 2017-2018” has been prepared by the XperiBIRD.be team at the end of the school year to illustrate the second edition of the project. Both Dutch and French versions have been published on Youtube, Facebook and on the website in June 2018. - Several other videos are visible on : o Youtube (Channel XperiBIRD.be) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QeOBRABrv83kZYtjn13uQ o Viméo: https://vimeo.com/183863669

2. Radio - Radio interview: « La vie en vert » program on RCF Liège 93.8 Fm on Wednesday 28/09/16 at 11am. ( https://rcf.fr/actualite/environnement/google-et-les-mesanges). - Radio broadcast on citizen sciences on LLN.fm (see above, “Café scientifique”), will be soon available as podcast. - Live radio intervention during the broadcast “Aller Retour Bruxelles” on Vivacité on 9 May 2017.

3. Articles - Geeko (Le soir) http://geeko.lesoir.be/2016/09/20/xperibird-un-projet-dobservation-de-mesanges-a-portee- pedagogique-grace-au-soutien-de-google/ - Carte Prof http://www.carteprof.be/news_view.php?ne_id=1414 - ZDNet http://www.zdnet.be/nieuws/186245/vogels-tellen-om-te-leren-coderen-met-xperibird/ - La Libre : http://www.lalibre.be/actu/sciences-sante/et-si-l-on-confiait-aux-ecoliers-l-observation-des- mesanges-57e13ff2357081f915d44da3 - De Tijd: http://www.tijd.be/dossier/krant/Scholieren_beloeren_pimpelmezen_met_microcomputer.9810 932-2972.art?ckc=1&ts=1474538232 - Het Laatste Nieuws: http://www.hln.be/regio/nieuws-uit-brussel/google-en-museum-voor-natuurwetenschappen- doen-onderzoek-naar-vogels-a2882106/ - Le Soir (Not available on internet) – « Les mésanges surveillées par des enfants » (M.d.M., 21/09/2016). - Le VIF http://www.levif.be/actualite/environnement/le-projet-xperibird-be-prend-son-envol/article- normal-553239.html - Le Journal des Enfants http://actu24.typepad.com/jde/2016/09/suivre-en-direct-la-reproduction-des- m%C3%A9sanges.html - Het Nieuwsblad (Not available on internet) – « Google en Museum voor Natuurweteschappen doen onderzoek naar vogels » (AMG, 21/09/2016) - EOS Magazine https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/natuur-milieu/leerlingen-houden-broedende-mezen-de-gaten - Symbiose (Réseau IDées asbl) N°114 http://symbioses.be/pdf/112/Sy-112-4-5.pdf - HLN.Be: http://www.hln.be/regio/nieuws-uit-brussel/google-en-museum-voor-natuurwetenschappen- doen-onderzoek-naar-vogels-a2882106/ - Le soleil Bruxellois (Tournesol asbl) (Not available on internet) – N°126 Oct-Nov-Déc. 2016 - PROF Magazine : http://enseignement.be/upload/docs/000000000006/000000013626_ZNTPWFPV.pdf#page=13

- ANTennes (Akona vzw) (Not available on internet) - UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve) https://uclouvain.be/fr/decouvrir/presse/actualites/un-p-tit-cafe-pour-la-science-a-l-ucl.html - Westvlaamsehart : http://www.westvlaamsehart.be/experiment-koolmezen-in-school-hagewinde.html - Belga http://www.belga.be/fr/news/details-86789116/ - Ostbelgienlive : http://www.ostbelgienlive.be/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-75/8302_read-48525/usetemplate- print/ - Belgieninfo : https://www.belgieninfo.net/die-ham-ja-ne-meise-bei-der-idsb/ - Clickx (Technologie) : http://www.clickx.be/achtergrond/168792/leer-je-kind-programmeren/ - TV Com : http://www.tvcom.be/article/info/sociye-tye-/l-ucl-veut-rassembler-les-citoyens-et-les- scientifiques_18787_89.html - Bruxelles News : http://www.bruxelles-news.be/xperibird-be-nouveau-reseau-social-ne/ - Sud Info de Trooze http://trooz.blogs.sudinfo.be/archive/2017/05/08/l-ecole-libre-de-fraipont-si-proche-de-la- nature-224260.html - Sillon belge : http://www.sillonbelge.be/657/article/2017-05-04/simpliquer-davantage-dans-la-protection-de- la-biodiversite-la-heph-condorcet - Brussels Bazaar : http://www.brusselbazaar.be/activiteit/xperibirdbe - La Meuse : http://www.lameuse.be/200736/article/2018-03-06/xperibird-suivre-la-nidification-des- mesanges - La Province : http://www.laprovince.be/200736/article/2018-03-06/xperibird-suivre-la-nidification-des- mesanges - Nieuwsblad : https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/bljli_03503215 - La Province (Mons): http://www.laprovince.be/231931/article/2018-05-15/mons-des-nichoirs-connectes-pour- observer-les-mesanges - L’Avenir: https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20170525_01010086/et-soudain-les-oiseaux-ont-quitte-le-nid - La Lettre des CCATM ( Fédération Inter-Environnement Wallonie) http://www.iew.be/IMG/pdf/lccatm87_light.pdf - Revue Louvain (p.19): http://online.fliphtml5.com/cycx/uxox/#p=32 - DH

http://www.dhnet.be/regions/mons/mons-bervoets-poursuit-le-projet-xperibird- 5b29139f55326301e79f6fbd - En Marche, magazine de la Mutualité chrétienne: https://issuu.com/enmarche/docs/numero1608

4. Websites: - Muséum (https://www.naturalsciences.be/fr/news/item/6253) - Google.org (https://www.google.org/our-work/education/) - Belspo (http://www.belspo.be/belspo/organisation/actua.asp?l=fr) (http://www.belspo.be/belspo/organisation/actua/20180417_Xperibird_fr.pdf) - EOS (http://www.iedereenwetenschapper.be/projects/bestudeer-je-eigen-mezen) - Enseignement SEGEC (http://enseignement.catholique.be/fesec/secteurs/sciences/?p=5050) - Enseignement.be (http://www.enseignement.be/index.php?page=25703&ne_id=4724&utm_source=twitterfeed&u tm_medium=twitter) - VOB (http://www.vob-ond.be/index.html) - Google Blog (https://europe.googleblog.com/2016/09/announcing-googleorg-grant-for.html) - DG website (http://www.dglive.be/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-75/8302_read-48525/) - CD&V (http://www.hildecrevits.be/nl/vogels-maken-van-scholieren-data-expert) - UFAPEC (Educative non-profit organization) http://www.ufapec.be/newsletter/nouvelles-web- ufapec.html - JNM, de Jeugdbond voor Natuur en Milieu (https://www.jnm.be/nieuws/nationaal/20-09- 2017/mezen-volgen-op-hun-nest) - Het Provinciaal Natuurcentrum (PNC) – Limburg (http://www.pnc.be/Limburg/pncnieuws/Natuurcentrum-Meta-Nieuws-Nieuws/Aan-alle- Limburgse-scholen-mis-deze-kans-niet!.html) - Het Stad-Land-schap 't West-Vlaamse hart (http://www.westvlaamsehart.be/xperibird- voelsprieterij.html) - Inspiratiedag Citizen Science Dag (http://www.pnc.be/Limburg/pncnieuws/Natuurcentrum-Meta- Nieuws-Nieuws/Eerste-Inspiratiedag-Citizen-Science-was-een-succes!.html?highlight=citizen) - Do it Together Science Bus (https://togethersciencebus.eu/the-science-bus-in-brussel- belgium/) - ProtoLabs (https://www.protolabs.fr/ressources/etudes-de-cas/naturebytes/) - Curlie Studio (http://www.curlie.be/portfolio/xperibird) - MV Studio (http://www.mvstudio.be/work/22/xperibird) - Naturebytes (http://naturebytes.org/birds-fly-from-the-naturebytes-nestboxes/) - Blog de Trooz (http://trooz.blogs.sudinfo.be/archive/2017/05/08/l-ecole-libre-de-fraipont-si- proche-de-la-nature-224260.html) - Nnieuws (https://nnieuws.be/artikel/zesdeklassers-van-gbs-de-knipoog-5e-plaats-whizzkids- wedstrijd) - Réseau Idées (https://www.reseau-idee.be/numerique/#parcours) - Website of schools / non-profit organization: ▪ Ecole de Nothomb : www.ecolenothomb.be/activites/403-2017-03-10-12-51-23 ▪ Ecole St Jean Genappe : http://www.ecolesaintjeangenappe.be/WP/le-nichoir-xperibird/

▪ Gelura non-profit organisation : http://www.gelura.com/images/nature/xperibird_gelura_2017.pdf ▪ Ecole Fraipont: http://www.hypothese.be/upload/files/Phase-1.pdf et http://ecolelibredefraipont.be/les-news/142-news-2017-05-09 ▪ Ecole Cardinal Mercier : http://ccmprimaire.be/wp/les-6e-observent-les-mesanges/ ▪ Meertalig Atheneum Woluwe: https://kaspw.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/leef-je-in-van-in-het-ei-tot-in-de-lucht/ ▪ Mater Dei: http://www.matertimes.be/2017/03/le-petit-oiseau-va-sortir/ ▪ CES St Vincent : http://www.ces-st-vincent.org/web/ ▪ HEPH Condorcet : https://www.facebook.com/Projet-Nichoirs-272045873252713/?fref=ts ▪ ISM Chatelineau: http://ismchatelineau.be/activites.html ▪ Little Birdies : http://www.bloggen.be/huismussenwerkgroepkoksijde/ ▪ Birds bay : https://www.facebook.com/birdsbay.be/?fref=ts ▪ ForSud: http://classebranchee.be/ ▪ Institut Cardijn-Lorraine Differt : http://www.differt.be/joomla/index.php/articles/33-projet-xperibird ▪ Vicariaat Onderwijs Mechelen – Brussel : http://www.vikom.be/dienst-pedagogische-begeleiding/secundair-onderwijs/vak-en- studiegebieddocumenten/maandbericht-610 ▪ Ecole de Metzert: http://www.ecolemetzerttontelange.com/projet-xperibird-mars-2018.html ▪ Ecole Enova: https://www.ecoleenova.be/single-post/2018/04/19/Une-visite-surprenante-avant-une- autre-tr%C3%A8s-attendue ▪ Ecole de Nassogne: https://ecolelibredenassogne.wordpress.com/2018/05/14/ce-14-mai-est-un-grand-jour- pour-les-hotes-de-notre-nichoir-des-oisillons-sont-nes/ ▪ SBS Octopus : https://www.sbsdeoctopus.be/node/374 ▪ Athénée royal de Neufchateau : http://www.chestrolais.com/2018/03/un-nichoir-connecte.html ▪ VBS Sint-Vincentius: http://www.vbsaaigem.be/2018/04/20/vogeltjes-in-onze-tuin ▪ Les petits futés: https://www.lesptitsfutes.com/p-5/mise-en-place-de-notre-nichoir-projet-xperibird ▪ Institut Sainte-Marie d’Arlon :

http://www.isma-arlon.be/nouvelles/2017-2018/pagessemaines/36.htm ▪ Sint-Jozefinstituut : http://www.sint-jozefsinstituut.be/kleuterenlager/practische-info/xperibird/ ▪ Ecole libre de Fraipont: http://ecolelibredefraipont.be/les-news/142-news-2017-05-09 ▪ Toverbol : http://www.toverbol.be/nieuwe-bewoners-de-toverbol ▪ Sint-Amandus School: http://www.sintamandusschoolmeulebeke.be/1b/2018/04/04/xperibird/ ▪ De Kerkel: https://www.dekrekel-degrasspriet.be/index.php/activiteiten/schoolnieuws/2456-daar-is- de-lente ▪ Het oogappeltje: http://www.hetoogappeltje.be/blogs/lagere-school/5de-leerjaar/852-5de-lj-het-nestkastje- is-bewoond ▪ VBS Libel: https://www.vbsdelibel.be/ ▪ EPASC Ciney : http://www.epasc-ciney.be/epasc/?page_id=6954 ▪ IDSB : http://www.idsb.eu/unsere- idsb/schulleben/detail/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=52&cHash=3285997f34ae977af9a93d 7fdb2e9936 ▪ Editiepajot : https://editiepajot.com/regios/43/articles/59527 5. Social Medias - Twitter: no account, but several tweets about XperiBIRD.be, https://twitter.com/hashtag/XperiBIRD?src=hash and use of the RBINS twitter account to relay information about XperiBIRD.be. - Youtube channel XperiBIRD.be: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QeOBRABrv83kZYtjn13uQ - Facebook, XperiBIRD.be has a page: www.facebook.com/XperiBIRD.be/. But XperiBIRD.be is also relayed on other Facebook pages such as : o La Libre o Des solutions pour demain o Radio2 Vlaams-Brabant o Ik hou van het Limburgs Landschap, o Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen o Ik heb a vraag o GoodPlanet Belgium o Naturebytes o Carte PROF o RCF Liège o CITECO o Forsud, etc.

- Instagram: No account, actualities about XperiBIRD.be can be published via the account of the RBINS.

Did any Googlers (Google.org staff or otherwise) contribute to your project during the reporting period? Since it was the second edition of the project and that everything works quite smooth, we had fewer interactions with the Google staff. We try to meet every 2-3 months to talk about the progress of the project. During these exchanges the RBINS team presents any relevant progress/ difficulties regarding the project. Our last meeting took place in April to define the communication strategy. We collaborated with Caroline Coesemans and Frederik Van De Meulebroucke (replacing Michiel Sallaets) for the press release. They worked in close collaboration with the communication department of the RBINS. During this meeting, we also talked about new collaborations betweenXperiBIRD.be and other initiatives from Google. We received information from the Google team on how to apply for a workshop during the Europe Code Week, but we don’t have enough expertise in this domain to propose a workshop. However, it may be interesting to participate and present XperiBIRD.be, so we could receive feedback from an ICT-/ STEM- oriented audience, since we are still dealing with the implementation of new activities around technologies using the camera.

Besides this, the Google team found us opportunities to get extra fundings making this third observation spring possible! This extension will be very useful for the data treatment of these 3 years of data collection and will also help us to try as much as possible to sustain the project even after the end of funding. They also help us to secure new partnerships (see below), especially in Flanders. For example, thanks to Caroline Coesemans, we are now in contact with Whizzkids, a non-profit organization that is organizing a STEM-contest for Flemish schools every year (see above).

What’s one thing that Google could do to better support your project or organization? During this edition, because the project was running fine, we got less feedback from the Google team. It would have been of great interest to co-design the survey sent to the teachers / students, or to work with specialized partners to help us to prepare survey and moreover to help us interpret the results (in term of STEM interest impact on the teacher / students). This would have been of great help, since we have no expertise in this domain within the Museum, but it is still possible to reiterate this next year, and the data collected this year may be interpreted later. It would also be very appreciated to work in closer partnership with the Google teams in order to develop the STEM dimension of XperiBIRD.be since we have few expertise in this domain (unlike natural sciences). We could develop new activities around technologies in order to raise children interest in STEM, but we don’t know what kind of activities, and in which format (special event, manual, video, contest on social media, workshops, etc.). We could also build some partnership with local STEM non-profit organization across Belgium, but, again, we don’t have such a network.

Growth

During this reporting period, did the Google.org grant help secure partners, projects, or funding that might not otherwise have been possible? If so, please explain. The XperiBIRD.be project could not have been implemented without the granting of Google.org. Schools have no budget to buy this kind of material, and the hiring of a person devoted to this new project by RBINS would not have been possible due to economic constraints. Thanks to this grant we can provide material of good quality to schools to help them arise interest about sciences, technologies and protection of biodiversity through their pupils, we developed an interactive website that will be at the heart of the project during the brooding period, we could (and will continue to) conduct a good communication campaign.

Several educative and/ or environmental non-profit organizations across Belgium are in close contact with schools from their neighborhood and helped them to install the material and supervised the gathering of observation data, etc. Thus, thanks to XperiBIRD.be, new synergies are being developed between different actors in the educational landscape of the same region. In the future, we would like to strength these collaborations, so the XperiBIRD.be network stays alive after these 3 years of granting.

We secured some collaborations between RBINS instances (besides the one with the project XperiLAB.be, explained in a previous report): ● The Belgian Bird Ringing Centre (Bebirds) is involved in the project and next year we aim to ring a higher proportion of birds. Both schools and ringers take advantages from this new type of collaboration. Ringers from this network visit some of the participating schools in order to ring the young birds under the watchful eye of the pupils. And, for ringers, the fact that the nest is localized and that they have information on the timing of egg hatch ease their work. ● XperiBIRD.be is also be associated to another “birds” project led by the RBINS: Falcons for everyone (see explanations above), since we assume the target public for those projects are overlapping at some point. ● Since XperiBIRD.be is a citizen sciences project, data will gathered by pupils and will be analyzed by scientist at the RBINS, from the Directorate Natural Environment (Terrestrial Ecology, Ornithology). The aim would also to publish these data as “Open Data”, to make them accessible to other scientists around Belgium / the world. ● We also offer to participants the opportunity to be active in other citizen sciences projects, improve the natural environment of their schoolyard, appropriately feed birds during winter, etc. For example, we rely information on the passerine birds counting weekend taking place end of January in Belgium, and organized by Natuurpunt and Natagora. ● XperiBIRD.be have been part of the Whizzkids contest this year. An XperiBIRD.be observation kit has been offered to the 50 finalist’s classes. The XperiBIRD.be team was present during the semi- final and, all 50 schools will received a small explanation about the project and a demonstration on the working of the camera, and then they received a kit to install in their school if they were interested to take part of it (all schools took a birdhouse  ). ● We are also in contact with Ekoli, a non-profit Flemish organization, aiming to bring sciences to disadvantaged groups (socio-economical and with disabilities) in Gent region. They would like to

distribute and supervise about 10 kits in the “big Gent”. This partnership is of great importance since that prior to this, we had almost no kits in this region. ● We have been contacted by Réseau Idée to be present at a special day “Outils numériques et ErE” (digital tools and environmental education). Réseau idée is a notorious non-profit organization in the field of environmental education in Wallonia and Brussels. ● Moreover, XperiBIRD.be is also taking a European dimension now. RBINS participates to DITOS project (Do It Together Sciences, a Horizon 2020 EU project), and an XperiBIRD.be workshop has been presented in Brussels in the framework of the international “Science Bus Tour” organized by DITOS. The principle of the Science Bus: “The Science Bus is hosting workshops all around Europe to engage curious minds and encourage people to share their life hacks. The Science Bus hits the road with simple DIY (research) tools. This is science for everyone, and folk wisdom is the research subject.” ● A meeting is scheduled with Value Bugs, a citizen science project aiming to grow edible insects on vegetable peelings, in order to share our good practices regarding communication and education in citizen science project focusing on school audience.

Thus, XperiBIRD.be project is a great opportunity to connect different departments at the RBINS (Educative and Scientific) together and even more to develop the educative network (dedicated to citizen sciences and STEM in particular) of the Institute. We aim to continue the great work led so far in order to improve the experience of all participants and motivate them to continue to engage in this fabulous project. We are also looking for opportunities to continue our work after these three years of granting.