Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Teaching Science through bird study
Download the free resource, Feathered Friends, for a month-by-month curriculum geared towards helping you use birds in your teaching. This resource provides ideas and activities that are linked to what is happening during certain times of the school year. Activities for May are specifically dedicated to the nesting season. Students learn when, where, and why birds build nests, and what nests may look like.
BirdSleuth Explorer Guidebook in English OR BirdSleuth Explorer’s-Guidebook Spanish. This curriculum is designed for teachers (Grades 3-5) and for families to help get kids outside and enjoying their local parks and natural areas. Take kids on a habitat scavenger hunt, create a sound map, and test bird ID skills with this adaptable activity book designed to be used by families, school groups, and anyone looking for a fun way to connect to nature. Inspired by the federal Every Kid in a Park initiative and geared towards fourth graders, this step-by-step guide will help you explore our country’s diverse habitats and the birds that live there.
Bird Communication – The Cornell Lab of Ornithology BirdSleuth K-12; Exploring bird sounds and the meanings behind them.
Thinking Outside the (Nest) Box– Cornell Lab of Ornithology (5th-8th) Middle School Curriculum Introduce youth to the life cycle of nesting birds and provide instructions for building and installing nest boxes, which in turn will enable youth to become citizen scientists and report their observations of nesting birds to the NestWatch program.
K-2 Educator’s Guide to use with Jane Yolan’s picture book, On Bird Hill by Cornell Lab or Ornithology.
Get to Know Birds Audubon Adventures Magazine for Kids
Habitat Bingo Cards (ages 4-8) (ages 8-12). Blank card to design your own. Bingo cards in Spanish available here: http://www.birdday.org/birdday/themes/2008/educational-materials
Bird Sleuth K-12 – Life In A Nest: Exploring Life Cycles With Bird Cams. Activities that explore life cycles through streaming videos of nesting birds. The Cornell Lab of Orinthology.
Investigating Evidence – Inspire investigations through outdoor observations and citizen science! Cornell Lab of Orinthology. Getting kids outside through citizen science is a great way to inspire curiosity and questions! This curriculum will help you turn these observations into investigations and encourage kids to draw their own evidence-based conclusions.
What Makes a Bird a Bird? – Introductory lesson. Teaches students to name the features that make birds unique and to identify three common bird species.
Evolution in Paradise. Middle-High School Curriculum. Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s labs free downloaded lessons explore the topics of science process, natural and sexual selection, behavior and heritability through hands-on activities and lively discussions… all with the help of the Birds-of Paradise Project videos.
Poster: Hummingbirds of North America by Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Explore Owl Pellet Dissection Curricula and Resources:
- Use Carolina Biological’s “Best Practices” for safe dissection lab procedures.
- Download Cornell Lab’s free student bone identification learning visual or purchase their standards-aligned food web owl pellet curriculum.
- Purchase Acorn Naturalist’s owl pellet dissection curricula resource book.
- Use this catchy music video to excite students about owl pellets
- Use this web-based tool, a Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection.
- If you want to collect and sterilize your own owl pellet, be sure to research necessary precautions to take during collection to protect yourself from potential Hantavirus exposure (carried by mice). The US Center for Disease Control brochure
- Audubon Adventures Owl Prowl. A fun activity book featuring North American owls.
- Owl Mask template
CUBs – Celebrate Urban Birds – Celebrate Urban Birds (CUB) is a year-round project developed and launched by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Its primary purpose is to reach diverse urban audiences who do not already participate in science or scientific investigation. In Spanish or English
7 Simples Actions to Help Birds– read the Sept. 2019 report by Cornell Lab of Ornithology describing a 30-year decline in birds in North America, and how citizens can help to reverse this trend.
Environment for the Americans (EFTA)
EFTA strives to make bird conservation education available throughout the Western Hemisphere. Goals are to:
- Create the framework educators need to host (IMBD) International Migratory Bird Day and other bird-focused programs, events, and festivals; Explore education materials about migratory birds and bird conservation; Use this ready-to-go outside habitat bingo game for kids of all ages, exploring habitat components. IMBD Serve as a network for the exchange of information about successful bird conservation education programs;Motivate the public to become involved in bird conservation.
- Free lessons materials in both English and Spanish- including fun games like “Go Bird Geo-Caching”
- Dancing with Birds Leavenworth’s Heather Murphy’s Bi-Cultural & Science Education Curriculum. Developed for use in middle-school and high-school, this 6-page curriculum helps students by budgeting their time while they research interesting natural history and conservation needs of selected neotropical migratory birds. Moving from birds, the student is directed to research the conservation needs of a Latin American country. The popular Latin dance, representative of that country, is then researched bringing, the full package together. The research developed by students can be put to use in further creation of art, posters, dance, and music.
IMBD officially takes place the second Saturday in May for the U.S. and Canada, and in October for Mexico, Central/South America, and the Caribbean. But we recognize this date doesn’t work well for all bird events, bird festival organizers, or for migratory birds themselves. Birds don’t migrate on the same day. We remedied this problem by removing the month and day from our bird education and festival materials, leaving only the year. Now, every day is Bird Day and IMBD is celebrated year-round! Examples of Lessons plans include BIrd cut-outs, a migration game, and more. https://www.migratorybirdday.org/resources/