Created by Nick Flanik and Eric Roberts

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that studies birds. Ornithology is something very unique in society since many amateurs take part in birding and studying birds. Websites like eBird https://ebird.org/home take amateur birding data and use it for large scale scientific research. This website allows any user to make a data entry of a bird they observe at a specific hotspot. Users can slowly build a collection of observations of what birds they have seen on there day to day livelihoods. Ornithology has opened up and help answer many scientific questions and theories that involve evolution, speciation, conservation,ecology, paleontology and many more. With the increase of amateur birding, these questions and theories have been able to gather large data collections and have more eyes to observe our surrounding birds. The goal of this kit is to help start a interest in birding while also helping people get introduced and enthused on science and nature. What better way is there than looking at beautiful colored organisms flying all around us !

Books To Help Get Started

There are many more great birding books made by Jonathan Alderfer and even more bird field guides to help with identification and learning more on birds made by others.

One of the goals of this activity is to help kids become scientists at a young age. This can also encourage kids to become more enthused with science and branch there interests. Being a scientists does not have to involve kids conducting experiments with chemicals in a lab. Science for kids begins at home and school with asking questions, critically thinking, explaining their reasoning and more. The most important is critical thinking, studies show that kids learn more when they are required to explain their reasoning and that this also helps them become better problem solvers. The activity attached promotes anyone participating to critically think, get hands-on, develop their own reasoning and ideas, and pay close attention to detail.

Field journals and notebooks come in many varieties , from amateur diaries to professional research grade notebooks. It is very easy to start a casual field journal. Next time you want to start just grab a piece of paper or notebook and a writing utensil and start observing something. As you observe jot down what you see and what you think along with drawing pictures or sketches if you want. The purpose of a field journal is to have a collection of information you have gathered from being out in the field. Many scientists go back to their journals they have written years ago. The more detail and specifics collected the better.

When in the field it may not come natural to write down what you observe and how to fill up the page. It is important to be as specific as possible since you will never be at that exact same moment twice. You may develop an idea or sentence that is in the moment and will not be curated twice. There are many questions to ask yourself when in the field. It is also very acceptable to doddle, draw, sketch whatever you think will help you convey what you are observing to others and your future self. DO NOT be afraid to get this journal dirty. They do sell rite in the rain field journals that are waterproof.

• The basics are who, what, when, where, why, how

• What do i see ? What is that ?

• Why is that organisms doing that ? Why does that organism look like that ?

• How was that formed ? How is that happening ?

• Who did that ? Who created that ?

Don't be afraid to get creative and think outside the box. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries have been founded on unusual ideas that were looked at negatively.

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions ”

-Albert Einstein

Field journals can be anything from only words to only pictures. It is entirely up to the creator and owner

K-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

3-LS4-3 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

MS-LS2-5 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.*

HS-LS2-6 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Acorn Naturalist ( https://www.acornnaturalists.com ) has many great birding activities and hands on things to look at and participate for learning about birds. Here are a few examples but the site has many many more.

• Birdology activity book https://www.acornnaturalists.com/birdology-30-activities-and-observations-for-exploring-the-world-of-birds.html

• Backyard bird explorer kit https://www.acornnaturalists.com/catalog/product/view/id/38826/s/backpack-explorer-bird-watch/

• Bird coloring book https://www.acornnaturalists.com/birds-coloring-book-peterson-guider.html

• What kids really want to know about birds https://www.acornnaturalists.com/everything-bird-what-kids-really-want-to-know-about-birds.html

• Feather kit https://www.acornnaturalists.com/north-american-bird-feather-replicasr-set-sampler.html

An assessment can be conducted on each participant on how well they were able to curate their journal entries. The assessment should not be done on if they were able to correctly identify their birds but how well there field journals were created and how much effort they put into the activity. It is important to let the curator have the freedom of creating the journal to their liking and work with how they think. Once again science for kids begins at home and school with asking questions, critically thinking, explaining their reasoning and more. The most important is critical thinking, studies show that kids learn more when they are required to explain their reasoning and that this also helps them become better problem solvers. An assessment can also be created on the fill in the blank of the bird anatomy.

An Essay assessment can be created that requires the participants to write what they learned. There is a lot to learn about birds and some aspects can be more understandable or interesting to various people. A vague paper that requires to write what someone learned about birds over the course of the curriculum can be read by the reviewer and a grade can be given.

Identification quizzes could also be given to participants. Kahoot can allow you to create a quiz based on the specific birds that were identified during the hike they took and the quiz could reflect the birds that were seen. There are also a few websites that are good for other bird centered quizzes.

• http://www.birdingquiz.com/birdtest/

  • This website is good because it allows you to edit the contents of the quiz and it has a wide range of difficulty

• https://www.allthetests.com/quiz31/quiz/1394737280/Birds-Of-Ohio

• https://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz3732492aba580.html

• https://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/for_children/animals_for_kids/birds_for_kids.html