With the nation-wide field test completed, we announce that BirdSleuth: Most Wanted Birds will be released by educators at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on October 1, 2006.  This first module of the BirdSleuth curriculum introduces kids to bird identification and citizen science through BirdSleuth eBird.

Many teachers and youth leaders have told us that kids love going outside to study birds. Beginning this fall, students and teachers will be able to explore birds and schoolyard inquiry through BirdSleuth, a new middle-school curriculum from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. BirdSleuth is designed to do more than help students learn new scientific concepts—it shows them how science is conducted.  The students take part in the scientific process by collecting data that is used by concervation biologists and ornithologists, and also by asking and answering their own questions about birds through experimentation, observational study, or reference research.

We also hope that learning about the birds around them will help students extablish a connection to their environment, and set them on the path toward caring about conservation.  As one student said, "whenever I see a bird, I think what kind it is.  I used not to care."

If you've ordered the curriculum, expect to see it arriving in your mailboxes in early October! 

Learn more about BirdSleuth: Most Wanted Birds here!