Early Elementary (K-3)

Elementary standards include studying what living things need to survive. Encourage kids to watch birds and think of questions to explore. Keep in mind, kids don’t need to know every bird’s name. Consider having students measure variables like cups of seed eaten or total number of birds visiting. Or just focus on one bird species.

Examples – Do chickadees feed directly from the feeder or the ground? What time of the day do we see the most birds at the feeder?

Sample Study:

Question: Will a fake cat scare away birds?

Methods: The study will take two weeks. For one week students measure the cups of seed eaten from the bird feeder without the fake cat present. In the second week the feeder is refilled and the fake cat is placed next to it. Like the first week, students measure the cups of seed eaten from the bird feeder.

Report: Students calculate the total amount of seed eaten for both weeks and create a graph comparing them. Then they analyze the results and decide whether the fake cat reduced the cups of seed eaten. Go further by developing a study to determine whether birds learn that the fake cat isn’t a real threat.