Monitoring Our Changing World Resources
Resources and links for the Monitoring Our Changing World curriculum.
- Teaching slides for Monitoring Our Changing World curriculum.
- The eBird Essentials course introduces you to the eBird project and provides tips and tools for using it. We recommend you enroll and complete this free, online course before starting this curriculum. It takes 2-3 hours to complete.
Investigation 1: Exploring Changing Habitats: Observing and monitoring birds and their habitats is an important step toward understanding and conserving our changing world.
Lesson 1
- Activity 1: Mystery Map
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: The Power of Participatory Science
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Lab 1
- Activity 1: North American Bird Trends
- The 3 Billion Birds Lost video summarizes the findings of a recent scientific study. The article, “Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone,” explains the study and provides context for the video.
- The Living Bird article, “Vanishing: More than 1 in 4 Birds Has Disappeared in the Past 50 Years”, shows the huge impact of habitat loss and the importance of conservation.
- Activity 2: Habitat Survey
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Reflect and Evaluate
- Download the State of the Birds 2019 report.
Investigation 2: Identifying Birds: Students learn species identification skills and the anatomical parts of a bird. They apply their knowledge with the Merlin Bird ID app to go birding.
Lesson 2
- Activity 1: Bird ID Basics
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Introducing Merlin
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Lab 2
- Activity 1: Clues to Bird ID
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Reflect and Evaluate
- All About Bird Anatomy an online interactive. Turn on Flashcard Mode and select the feather category.
Investigation 3: Digging Deeper with Bird ID: Through observing birds, students will understand how behavior and sounds help with identification.
Lesson 3
- Activity 1: Exploring Behavior
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Bird Song Hero
- Teaching slides, linked above
- The Bird Song Hero learning game helps students learn common bird songs with spectrograms.
- Activity 3: Plumage Variation
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Lab 3
- Activity 1: Focus Bird Field Guide
- All About Birds Online Field Guide is an extensive, easy-to-use guide for identifying birds found in North America.
- Activity 2: eBird Walk
- See past and live bird entries with the eBird live submissions map.
Reflect and Evaluate
- Test student identification skills using the eBird Photo and Sound Quiz.
Investigation 4: Monitoring Migration: Students define and explain migration patterns and habitat challenges. They encounter abundances model and read other maps and models.
Lesson 4
- Activity 1: Migration
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Using eBird Bar Charts to Explore Migration
- eBird Explore section. Type your county into the Explore Region. Under the Explore Setting, select Bar Charts from the left hand menu bar under.
- Activity 3: Explore eBird Line Graphs
- Create a line graph from your region’s bar chart. From the eBird Explore section, type your county into the Explore Region. Under the Explore Setting, select Bar Charts from the left hand menu bar under. From the bar chart, select the line graph icon.
Lab 4
- Activity 1: One Bird, Two Habitats
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Abundance Models
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Sharable link to the Major Habitats of North America map.
- Explore eBird abundance models through eBird Status and Trends. Type in the name of your target species in the search bar to view their abundance maps. Once you’ve landed on the abundance map and if there are animated maps, you can see them by clicking on the weekly tab near the top, then clicking the play button on the right-hand side.
- Learn more about eBird abundance models and weekly abundance models.
- Activity 3: Focus Bird Habitat
- All About Birds Online Field Guide is an extensive, easy-to-use guide for identifying birds found in North America.
Investigation 5: Population Dynamics: Students will understand how carrying capacity affects a species’ population size and how this aids conservation.
Lesson 5
- Activity 1: Introduce Population Studies
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Carrying Capacity
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Lab 5
- Activity 1: Carrying Capacity in American Redstarts
- Explore eBird abundance models through eBird Status and Trends.
- Use All About Birds Online Field Guide to research American Restarts.
- Activity 2: Carrying Capacity Scenario
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Reflect and Evaluate
- Revisit The Living Bird article, “Vanishing: More than 1 in 4 Birds Has Disappeared in the Past 50 Years”.
Investigation 6: Complex Impacts of Climate Change: Students will observe how trends in participatory-science data can indicate changes in habitat, including those caused by climate change.
Lesson 6
- Activity 2: Explore Climate Change Impacts
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Lab 6
- Activity 1: Studying Impacts of Climate Change
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 2: Exploring the Cahow’s Complex System
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Activity 3: Conservation Applications
- Teaching slides, linked above.
Investigation 7: Think Globally…: Students define “wicked problem” in the context of climate change and develop possible solutions.
Lesson 7
- Activity 2: Choose a Case Study
- All About Birds Online Field Guide is an extensive, easy-to-use guide for identifying birds found in North America.
Lab 7
No web-based resources needed.
Investigation 8: …Act Locally: By engaging in participatory science students learn that they can contribute to local and global efforts to monitor and conserve birds.
Lesson 8
- Activity 1: Local Participatory Science
- Explore the 7 simple actions to help birds on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.
Lab 8
- Activity 1: Student Data Matters
- Teaching slides, linked above.
- Use All About Birds to review the life history of the House Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco.
- Explore student collected data in the Tualatin Valley Excel spreadsheet.
- Activity 2: Summing It Up
- Prepare for the lesson by downloading your class data from you My eBird account.