Science is for the Birds
By Susan Ade Potenza

To download the Bird Data Collection Sheet click here. PDF 107KB

Seventh-grade expert "bird counters" peer out the classroom window to record the day's bird sightings.

I have designed a five-month interdisciplinary bird study for my seventh-grade students that combines life science, technology, writing, art, mathematics, social studies and literature. The driving force behind this yearly unit is the BirdSleuth eBird program (formerly the Cornell University Classroom FeederWatch program) that's offered to classrooms around the country by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (www.birds.cornell.edu/birdsleuth). This program gives students an opportunity to count birds outside their classroom windows, collect data on a daily basis and share this data with Cornell while becoming part of a nationwide research study.

Ask the experts. As an introduction to this unit, I assign my students a research project on a specific bird found in the state of Georgia. The majority of the birds on the list will eventually be seen at our feeders, in our campus habitat or at one of our many birdhouses. For technology integration, this report is a PowerPoint presentation where part of the research comes from reliable Internet sources such as About.com (http://birding.about.com/od/allaboutbirds), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (www.birds.cornell.edu), Wild Birds.com (www.wildbirds.com) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (www.fws.gov/endangered). The students identify and select pertinent facts about their birds such as physical characteristics, habitat, range, mating and breeding, feeding patterns, migration and endangered species status. From that point on, each student becomes the seventh-grade "expert" on his or her bird. Future questions will be directed to him or her by classmates or by me during class discussions.

Dedicated birders. Located by our classroom window is a data collection sheet with the following six columns: date, time of day, temperature, weather conditions, species of bird and number of birds seen at one time at our feeders. We have four different types of feeders including one with suet and one specifically for very small birds.

Every week, I assign two students as bird counters. During our regular class activities, they can quietly go to the window and record what they see. Bird books, charts and photos are located nearby to help with accurate species identification. The tricky part comes when a migratory bird visits from another part of the country, or the bird has its "winter" feathers and looks different. Male and female birds don't have to be told apart, but after the research projects, my students get very excited when they can distinguish one from another.

At the end of each week, we record the findings on a large class chart. Students create bar graphs and the weekly bird counters go online to submit the data directly to Cornell.

Time to write. As a language arts connection, I introduce students to one of my favorite simple poetry forms, the diamante. The diamante consists of seven lines and the final poem resembles a diamond shape. First line: noun; second line: two adjectives; third line: three verbs; fourth line: four-word phrase; fifth line: three verbs; sixth line: two adjectives and seventh line: synonym for the noun. I then ask the class to write a poem about any bird found in our state. It does not have to be the same bird from their report. My students also illustrate their bird, using the appropriate field marks, colorations, beak, wing, head, tail and feet shape(s). Scientific illustration like this is used in the field by biologists and ornithologists. Here's a diamante poem written by student Ryan Mattimoe:

Coopers Hawk

Elegant, sleek
Flying, soaring, preying
Cornucopia of distinguished hunters
Consuming, slaying, preening
Swift, magnificent
Predator

Check the data. I also incorporate mathematics into our bird unit. Weekly, each student must reorganize the data collected into graph form. We use this information to make predictions for the following week. Comparing these predictions to the actual results determines our end-of-week discussions, which revolve around the type of birdseed, temperature, time of day and weather conditions and how these might be affecting our numbers. The seventh-grade "expert" might propose a reason for, or justify, the discrepancy, based on his or her knowledge of a particular species. At the conclusion of the unit, five months of data is compiled into a class graph. With a partner, students will then calculate which species were most prevalent, least prevalent, what the average visits by each species were per week and any anomalies.

Up for debate. To integrate social studies, literature and ecology, I read the students She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! by Kathryn Lasky (Hyperion, 1997). This middle-school level, nonfiction picture book tells of the two women who founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The fashion rage at the end of the 1800s caused the extinction and near extinction of several species of birds. Their feathers, heads, wings and whole bodies were being used on hats for decoration. After reading the book, I like to split students into groups to debate this issue. Using knowledge gained from our bird study, combined with historical facts from this book, some students must defend the use of bird parts on hats (economics, individual rights), while the others must defend the rights of the women in the book to protest this and get the law changed (democracy, ecology). After the debates, we then access the National Audubon Society website at www.audubon.org The class is then able to see current proof of what these ladies accomplished over 100 years ago.

Lighting a spark. Each year of the six years we've used the Cornell FeederWatch program to connect other curricular areas, my students have come into class and immediately gone to our bird-watching window area. They are so engaged they'll even count birds when science class is not in session like during homeroom or study hall.

These ideas can be used at any grade level from third or fourth grade on, just by adjusting the curriculum accordingly. Every year one or more of my students will come bursting into class announcing, "I saw three white-breasted nuthatches and a red-headed woodpecker outside my kitchen window this morning!" At that point, I am certain that a spark has been lit and learning has taken place.

To download the Bird Data Collection Sheet click here. PDF 107KB

Susan Ade Potenza teaches science and language arts at St. Martin's Episcopal School in Atlanta, GA.

February, 2007, Vol.37, No.5