What is BirdSleuth?

BirdSleuth is an inquiry-based science curriculum that engages kids in scientific study and real data collection through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's exciting citizen science projects. BirdSleuth provides educators with kits that:

• Encourage kids to answer their own questions about nature using the scientific process.

• Spend time outdoors, connecting with nature by focusing on the fascinating sights, sounds, and behaviors of birds.

• Motivate kids by the real-world importance of the data they enter online, which scientist use to understand and conserve birds.

• Highlights and engages kids in one or more citizen science projects

History

The development of BirdSleuth, originally called “Classroom BirdWatch,” was funded with a three year grant from the Instructional Materials Development Program at the National Science Foundation in 2004. With feed-back from classroom testing the original rather long curriculum has been re-structured into a series of modules that teachers could select depending on the specific content areas they wish to cover.

Goals & Objectives

• Engage student injury
• Spark curiosity and provide tools to make discoveries
  
• Introduce the scientific process in a hands-on setting
• Support educators in teaching science through birds
• Get kids outdoors and engaged with their surroundings  
  

To help involve students in inquiry, BirdSleuth scaffolds several of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology citizen science projects, in which participants collect data to help answer important scientific questions in partnership with Cornell Lab scientists. By participating in citizen science, students become an integral part of the scientific process as they do what “real” scientists do: ask questions, collect data, look for patterns and evidence, test ideas, make conclusions, and share results. Each module and lesson plan has specific learning objectives.

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