In 2019, I was lucky enough to be able to reach more young birders with the development of K-12 programming. By participating as a guest speaker at Woldumar Nature Center, I was able to lead activities with roughly 160 children between the ages of 4 and 12. Additionally, I spent time in several classrooms acting as a facilitator of our Bird by Bird school program. I was able to reach over 200 fifth-grade students during the 2018-2019 school year. This school year, I’ve added two fourth-grade classrooms and three first-grade classrooms to the program.
Preparing for my time with these students both at camp and in the classroom was spent Googling, comparing notes, and using resources available from institutions like Cornell. Some items are ready to use in their current form. Others took some tweaks and reimagining. My experiences helped with preparations for future visits with K-12 students.
Because of all I’ve learned and continue to learn, we now have a page dedicated to educational resources available on our website which includes links to numerous organizations, citizen science projects, and downloadable activities.
Just like nature, the resource page will continually evolve as new educational tools are developed to help teach the next generation about birds and conservation.
We hope you enjoy and please contact me with any questions at lcain@michiganaudubon.org.
by Education Coordinator Lindsay Cain