Impact case study database

The My NatureWatch project used an open access, affordable DIY camera trap kit to engage diverse audiences and organisations with a combination of technology and nature. The provision of the camera together with scalable workshops and training-the-trainer events increased participants’ learning about and participation in the natural world as a result of using technology to engage with their environment. Participants were aged between 6 and 83, from diverse backgrounds, and ranged from technophobes to techno geeks, wildlife activists to novices. Engagement work using these toolkits also influenced partner organisations’ ongoing public participation and learning activities. The My NatureWatch camera toolkit and workshops produced continuing benefits in major national and local organisations by combining the distinctive Open Design approach with public participation in ecology and conservation. Data shows that the instructions have been downloaded nearly 5,000 times since 2017 (5.1) with nearly 2,200 camera kits purchased from the main supplier since June 2018 (5.2).

National museums

The Design Museum in London adopted the My Naturewatch approach to encourage participation ‘outside the four walls’ of the Museum and engage visitors from different demographics (5.3). Activities included a workshops series, a participant-led pop-up exhibition and two expert panel sessions, which shared the experiences and insights from an RCA-designed training programme (5.3). The sessions were run in cooperation with the Holland Park Ecology Centre, and involved a group of over-60s who would not usually engage in technology creation. This has led to a reconsideration of the museum’s strategy for participation, design and ecology: ‘This provided the opportunity for the museum's widening participation strand to deliver activity both on- and off-site, and to think about the opportunities for design-led activities in parks and other areas of ecological interest’ (5.3). The work transformed the Design Museum outreach team’s approach to sustainability: ‘It opened up new ways of thinking within the Learning Department on how the museum can collaborate with HEIs on practice-led design research […] The course also demonstrated that there is a crucial role for museums to play in introducing contemporary design issues and technologies to older audiences’ (5.3). My NatureWatch also worked with the Natural History Museum’s citizen science team, building volunteers’ confidence in technology, and added a new dimension to scientific monitoring of the Wildlife Garden as well as inspiring NHM to plan the install of environmental sensors at their eleven partners across the UK to support learning activities as part of their national learning programme Explore: Urban Nature (5.4). The Victoria & Albert Museum included My NatureWatch in its Digital Design Weekend, which attracted 25,000 visitors, increasing engagement with public audiences (5.5).

Conservation organisations

The RCA team developed a ‘Training the Trainers’ scheme and worked with 16 leading wildlife groups whose staff were trained to use the My NatureWatch toolkit, including: National Wildlife Trusts, National Wetlands Centres, Kew Gardens, Spitalfields City Farm, The Durrell Trust and The Conservation Volunteers UK (TCV). This led to at least 15 workshops (for which there is data) being run independently with participants, expanding the project’s reach substantially. A review meeting held at the Design Museum showed that the My NatureWatch project led to increased deployment of the technology among volunteers, improved understanding of biodiversity, encouraged new technology/nature strategies and spurred greater progress towards achieving conservation aims (5.3).

The Durrell Trust adopted My NatureWatch as part of its ‘Conservation Learning’ strategy, and has become part of the Knepp Estate’s world-leading rewilding project to re-introduce storks to the UK, using the My NatureWatch toolkit to log and tag flighted birds, providing valuable insights into animal activity. The reduced toolkit cost enabled The Durrell Trust to train volunteers (who feed the storks) to use the My NatureWatch equipment, increasing public engagement as well as cataloguing opportunities (5.6). Following the success of this project, The Durrell Trust is planning to use My NatureWatch in schools with up to 1,000 11-16 year old participants who would not normally have engaged in conservation activities. The Trust has submitted a lottery bid for £235,500 (5.6) for a ‘Beauty in Nature project’, which will start in Jersey and roll out to rewilding sites around the world. Other examples of the impact of this research include The Ouse & Adur Trust, an independent charity developing a new waterway, which created a rental scheme to enable local families and schools to use the My NatureWatch toolkit, as a way of increasing participation and local interest in, and obtaining a better picture of, wildlife behaviour in the area (5.7); and The Wildlife Trusts (WT) supporting local volunteers to monitor hedgehogs using My NatureWatch (5.3), with a further planned large-scale project for ‘#30dayswild’ (June 2021, delayed due to Covid). My NatureWatch has also transformed the way the 46 senior staff at The WT (directors and heads of policy) view technology as a way to engage a more diverse audience in a new ‘ground-up’ approach. The WT Head of Policy reported that: ‘Without the My Naturewatch project we would not be thinking like this, and/or encouraging the use of technological approaches within our means.’ This approach underpins the planning for their 2021–2031 Wilder Future strategy, providing a lasting legacy (5.8).

Engaging the general public with technology and nature via the media

On 11 June 2018, BBC SpringWatch dedicated nearly a quarter of their programme to My NatureWatch, with 2 million live viewers. On the programme, Chris Packham said, ‘It’s fantastic, to be honest with you, the fact that we can all be involved with this is brilliant, they do work really well’ (5.9a). Since the SpringWatch broadcast, thousands of My Naturewatch camera photographs have been posted to the online forum and social media sites (5.9b). It is evident from forum and social media comments that these are a tiny fraction of the pictures taken, and it is not unusual for hundreds of pictures to be taken in a single session, most containing animals. The BBC Wild Academy for young people and schools featured the project, and presenter Maddie Moate independently created a YouTube video about making and using the camera trap (5.9c), posting the resulting wildlife pictures on Twitter and Facebook. The technology was also used on GardenWatch (5.9d). BBC SpringWatch’s producer noted that, ‘Since its inception, SpringWatch has tried to innovate in terms of finding ways to interact with its audience and in finding ways for them to interact with wildlife, and the My Naturewatch project allowed us to do both in new and lasting ways’ (5.9d). In addition, it ‘continues to provide content to this day as well as being a benchmark and inspiration for developing new ideas’ (5.9d).

Impact on participants

Engagement activities, using the three key principles of Phillips’ Open Design work, have been held with at least 3,500 participants, run directly by the project team and indirectly by other participating organisations, between April 2018 and March 2020. Evaluations with participants investigated how their knowledge of the natural world and the environment had changed as a result (5.10, 5.11). Richmond University, Kingston University, University of Bristol, EPSRC Young Researchers, Pearl Institute (India), Schumacher College, Lewes Old Grammar School, Westmeads School London and Coder Dojo extra-curricular schools have all used the My Naturewatch approach to engage students with biodiversity through technology. Westmeads School noted the beneficial impact on pupil attendance and punctuality as well as curriculum development (5.12), and a CoderDojo lesson plan for constructing and using the My Naturewatch camera was published in HelloWorld (5.13). The University of Sussex Ecology Department used the My Naturewatch toolkit for their ‘Watch and Learn’ project involving students at 10 primary schools in Brighton and Hove: ‘Passing it onto the schools was pretty cool, seeing the artwork that they’ve generated and the poems that they’ve written was pretty cool. That wouldn’t have been created without the initial spark. First from you guys, obviously, making the camera, and then me taking the idea and forcing it onto the schools’ (5.14).

Amateur participants reported increased awareness of biodiversity or lack thereof in their environments, and reported capturing images of wildlife they didn’t know existed in their gardens or immediate environment. Participants also reported making changes to improve the biodiversity of their garden or immediate environment in order to increase their chances of taking more and better wildlife photographs (5.11). Technological benefits were particularly prevalent in the over-60s, who reported feeling digitally ‘re-skilled’, with reduced fear of technology and greater engagement with outdoor spaces and species: ‘The process has made me feel re-skilled and I am keen to learn more’; ‘I know more about this technology than my grandchildren, which is empowering’ (5.10).

In terms of engagement with biodiversity and conservation, the recorded impacts include: participants developing new understandings of the local environment, changing their landscape architecture and adding ponds to encourage wildlife: ‘I’ve come to some sort of acceptance of the foxes and the squirrels, and I’ve adapted my behaviour to accommodate their lifestyle, to protect my plants, and things like that’; ‘This project has allowed me to look at things in a completely different way in my tiny little garden’ (5.11). The experiences of the hundreds of people who made and used the cameras demonstrates the profound impact of this approach on public participation in design.