Science Lab #1

The first LABS session was devoted to learning the parts of a bird's body and starting to identify the 10 to 15 birds that are seen frequently in our school neighborhood. I set the lab up as 4 activity centers and with 3 adults this worked out nicely. The teacher in each of the two classes provided the students with an opportunity to learn the bird's body parts. We used the materials from the AAS LABS box.

I ran activity #2, which was bird song identification. I had two devices that use batteries and one book with a built in speaker for selecting songs-The Backyard Birdsong Guide by Donald Kroodsma. I would highly recommend this book for a listening activity with students. I was prepared to use my iPod with Bird Jam but felt that it was too complicated for the amount of time we had available. The objective was for students to understand that each bird has its own particular song and that this is a good way to identify birds in the field.

I set up 2 lap tops for activity #3. I had previously created a simple Powerpoint to help the bird club members learn the common birds. The students were able to manage the activity on their own. This activity seemed to be the students' favorite.

Activity #4 was run by the science lab coordinator. She played a memory/concentration game from the LABS material with the students . Students were asked to identify the bird after turning over the first card. Students spent about 8-10 minutes at each activity and were nicely engaged at each stop.