Promoting a Sense of Place Virtually: A Review of the ESA Weekly Water Cooler Chat Focused on Virtual Sense of Place

Abstract

The world has forever been changed by the pandemic. It does not look or operate like it did prior to COVID-19, and we do not know what it will look like moving forward. The current "normal", whether still facing quarantine or not, presents both challenges and opportunities. The ESA Weekly Water Cooler Chat is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that brings together practitioners and researchers by providing a space for members to chat about what they are facing. As many people are forced into a “virtual” remoteness, the Water Cooler topics often address online or virtual field experiences. The Undergraduate Field Experiences Research Network (UFERN) (NSF RCN-UBE grant #173056) and ESA came together in April 2020 to organize a transdisciplinary chat, “Connecting to Place - Virtually.”