My+Updates

I am starting on a re-write of the "Investigating Evidence" module based on what I've learned by working with the course teachers.
 * Please add your name and give a brief update on what you've been doing with BirdSleuth, the Investigating Evidence resources, and student investigations!**
 * Jennifer Fee**


 * Joyanne Hamilton**
 * Innoko River School**
 * Shageluk, Alaska**

My students have begun a collaboration with students in San Igancio de Recalde School, Lima, Peru. We are providing each other data and observations on migratory birds that we share between continents. It has been a lot of fun. If you'd like to see our introductory YouTube videos, please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z0Xawyf5uo and []

So far our school is only able to share data regarding when we last saw the birds as, obviously, they are all gone from our area! It's been fun. We had a Skype video conference that was informative and interesting.

Joyanne--these videos make me so happy =) thanks for sharing!!!!! --Jen

My students are again collaborating online with Elizabeth's students this year. I've begun looking at using the Bird Behavior module with my 9th & 10th grade students. Hoping to inspire them to collect bird behavior data for their inquiry projects at our bird blind.
 * Phil Kahler**

//Phil, let me know how it goes with the Behavior module. We are actually about to sell out of the unit and so we want to do a "second addition" rather than print it exactly as it is now. I'd love to get your feedback. --Jen// Jen, How soon will you be working on this? This is my first go at this module, so it may not be until spring before I'm through it all. It will be at least spring, Phil. I just added a Bird Behavior page. The Bird Behavior Module identifies many Corvid behaviors to study, but I'd like to develop a list of behaviors students could watch for at our feeders (behaviors of common feeder birds). -Phil

I just started a birdsleuth project with my 8th graders last week. You can visit our wikispace at http://cfsbirds-2010.wikispaces.com. We are trying to get our projects ready to go in the next week or so.
 * Tommy Johnson**

//Tommy, your page looks great!!! Have you actually started these experiments? I'd be willing to comment on a few of them if that is OK with you and it isn't too late. --Jen// //Great job Tommy! Looks like your students are hard at work. -Phil// We are still working on finalizing our questions, forming hypotheses, and developing our procedures. Some of them might start their experiments this weekend or over the Thanksgiving holiday. Please feel free to comment. -Tommy Wow Tommy! Your students put together some awesome bird projects this year. I enjoyed looking through your student's report pages. -Phil Thank you. It was a challenging project for __all__ of us. I learned just as much doing it with my students as I did taking the summer course. We are now in the process of putting our reports onto posters for our upcoming Science Day. Some of them are considering doing additional work to compare early winter observations with late winter observations. My main bits of advice to other folks who are getting ready to do this: I will definitely be doing this again next fall. -Tommy
 * Give yourself __more time__ than you think you will need.
 * Encourage kids to get their feeders up and established well before they are ready to begin observations.
 * Make sure that their feeders are weather proof, varmint proof, pet proof, and that they check with their apartment supers before they set them up.

I am getting geared up to start another round of BirdSleuthing with my 8th grade students. This year we will be starting sooner (Early October instead of mid November). And I am going to have all of my students make bird feeders to set up in their yards so that they have plenty of time to start attracting birds, watching birds, thinking about birds, dealing with squirrels, and getting them ready to think about how to do a bird investigation. I am also doing a little advance work on how to ask good questions and what sorts of questions can be answered with an investigation. I will keep you posted. (If anyone still reads this wiki...) I would love to find a classroom to collaborate with this fall. Email me at tommyjohnson7@gmail.com or tjohnson@cfsnc.org. It has been another learning experience for me. I still haven't given enough time in our schedule to really make it work like it should. Next year I will start a month earlier and give them more practice with asking questions and working on ways to pursue answers to those questions. They need so much more practice with these skills. And more practice with making and interpreting graphs would help as well. I feel like we are just scratching the surface after all this work. include component="comments" page="My Updates" limit="10"
 * Tommy Johnson Fall 2011 Update**
 * November 2011. We are finishing up our projects. Check them out at** http://cfsbirds-2011.wikispaces.com/