Kudos to bird-aware teachers!
From The Daily News in McKeesport, Pa.:
Consortium for Public Education Rewards 'Great Ideas'
Those funds were applied to Steel Valley's "Math and Science: It's for the Birds"; South Allegheny's "Birds Count"; and the Finley Middle School Composting Project in Ringgold School District.
To Steel Valley Middle School, $1,350 was given for 170 sixth-graders to study the local bird population, taking pictures, doing research on various species and studying their biology.
In math classes, students will learn about various styles of birdhouses and calculate their surface areas, volumes and openings.
They then will build birdhouses specific to certain species and study the birds that use them. The houses will be placed in the memorial garden, the educational pond area and the outdoor classroom.
Dominion gave $1,054.65 to "Birds Count," in which 585 students at South Allegheny Elementary will participate in birding activities.
After bird behavior and identification lessons are taught in the classroom, students will participate in monthly birding events, collecting and submitting data to the online PA Bird Atlas, E-Bird and Urban [Bird] Studies.
Students will share their observations via a school bulletin board and school television network.
Teachers Audrey Aubrecht, Patricia Kostik and Karen Kadar applied for the grant.
posted by Amy at 10:50 AM
3 Comments:
Great ! I live in the Pittsburgh area and I hadn't heard about these grants yet.
We have a lot of interesting bird action here in town and I start most of my elementary days (as a substitute teacher) with "The Bird Report". Got started doing this earlier this year as the peregrine nesting began. Each morning I would print color pix from the webcams and take them to school to pass around first thing in the morning. First the eggs, then the chicks and their growth, then fledging, then banding. etc etc etc
It did stick with the kids. In the fall kids would say,"Are you going to have the bird report today?" Well, sometimes I have "The Caterpillar Report" or the "Frozen Frog report" - whatever I've got new. It's a lot of fun.
You're fantastic! Thank you for sharing "The Bird Report" while substituting.
I would like to invite any experienced birders in the McKeesport area to present to our classes. We also would greatly appreciate any help with our bird counts.
Audrey Aubrecht
South Allegheny School District
Birds Count grant
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