Kim Adelson
Watch the Video! (see below)
This spring, BHAS, in collaboration with Capitol Land Trust, North Thurston Public Schools and the South Sound Estuary Association, was planning to offer a STEM learning experience at the Land Trust’s Inspiring Kids Preserve on Johnson Point Road. (You may have seen our call for volunteers in either the Echo or on our Web page.) We were to have staffed one of four learning stations – dedicated to birds, of course! – and 3rd-graders from 3 local elementary schools would have spent about half an hour walking along a nature trail in which we had placed lifelike, wooden bird models. The group leader would have talked about how to recognize the different species, about each bird’s place in the ecosystem, and adaptation that let them thrive in the environment they live in.
Getting this project up and running was an enormous task, and several members of the Education Committee worked hard to make it happen. We had to plan and design the project, find bird models, select an appropriate site in the Preserve, write a script to use during the bird walk, submit a report as to how the project met STEM curricular guidelines, devise written exercises for the children, and recruit and train volunteers to shepherd the students through the experience.
The idea of using model birds to interest children about birds is an idea we’d been kicking around for some time: we had heard that another Audubon chapter had tried it with great success. Providing models guarantees that “birds” will be present, as near and unobstructed as we want them to be, and stationary. This ensures that all the children can get a good look at them.
Finding life-sized, realistic, affordable models proved to be a challenge. In fact, we had to appeal to a Swedish manufacturer to get them! Luckily, we came across Wildlife Garden, a company that makes and sells wooden model birdsas well as other home and garden décor (Wildlife Garden – Living Garden). The owner of the company very generously donated quite a large number of birds to us to use in our project. They are accurate and beautiful! We owe them a very large thank you.
Unfortunately, about two weeks before our start date, the North Thurston Public School district was suffering from a shortage of bus drivers and decided that they could not transport the children to the Preserve this year. So in lieu of giving the students a live experience this spring, Mary Birchem of Capitol Land Trust and I made an 11-minute video that was sent to the classroom teachers to show in their classrooms. Although we could cover only a few birds in that amount of time, the video does manage to talk about the need to protect birds because of the important roles they play in the ecosystem. Mary interspersed clips of me discussing the model birds with footage of live birds and the Preserve itself. I think we can be very proud of it and we hope to send it to additional teachers for use in their classrooms.
The plan is to “go live” with the project next spring! If, having seen the video, you would like to volunteer to help take 3rd-graders on a (model) bird walk in 2023, please contact me, Kim Adelson, at education@nullblackhills-audubon.org.