An Introduction for Teachers and Students
The
Context
Originally BirdCentral.net was
established as a gallery of photos of North American birds.
Eventually as my own studies in curriculum developed I
realized that I wanted to utilize this site as an
opportunity to investigate how to teach about birds, natural
history, and ecology. With the popularization of
birdwatching the study of birds has become more of a leisure
sport than an aspect of zoology. Part of my goal is to
create a site that approaches the concept of zoology through
the study of birds; science through the study of
nature. While there is newer material on the
natural history of these species available, the historical
aspect of the material found in A. C. Bent's Life
Histories of North American Birds provides a special
significance in our study of birds as species, as subjects
of conservation efforts, as potential allies, and threats.
Through careful reading of the passages we see some of the
first thoughts on understanding that the habitat is changing
and that change has an effect on the populations of
different species. For some the changes are beneficial and
for others it is detrimental. We get to read accounts of how
people originally perceived the status of birds as we read
accounts of how many shorebirds can be stuffed into a barrel
and sent to market and how much per pound will be paid for
the feathers of particular species of birds. Often Bent
addresses the question about what these are birds worth in
an economic sense, and the answers that he comes up with are
interesting.
Beyond
Birding
I once had a well meaning colleague
tell me that we both shared a similar endeavor: he
participated in Fantasy Football and I was a birdwatcher. We
had similar hobbies, he said. I was again reminded of the
need to better explain the process of field ornithology.
While much of birdwatching consists of identifying species
in the field there is also the process of understanding what
you see. Thomas J. Grubb Jr., of the Department of
Evolution, Ecology and Organizational Biology at Ohio State
University, in his book Beyond Birding offers
examples of basic field ornithology that beginning
zoologists could undertake. In addition to demonstrating how
field ornithology takes place it also introduces the reader
to the application of statistical analysis of the data
gathered. Portions of his book are included with kind
permission of the author.
The Themes Page
The Themes page categorizes the larger
themes found in the text. There are certain considerations
that run through the examination of each species: how
do we recognize it as a species, how are humans impacting
it, how is it impacting humans, what are the mechanics of
its efforts to survive? I have identified the themes and
provided links to the text under the various theme headings
of courtship, breeding, nesting, feeding, speciation,
conservation/economic importance, habitat, behavior,
mortality/parasitism. For example, if a teacher wanted to
draw on examples of nesting behavior they can chose from 37
different nesting behavior descriptions.
Constructivism is a pedagogy that
recognizes the role of the student in creating knowledge for
themselves by their active involvement in the material, and
their relationships with fellow students and teachers and
other community members. The Internet environment provides me
an opportunity to link references in the text to explanatory
sites. When the text talks about parasites of specific
birds, the student can link to a page that describes that
parasite. When archaic phrases are utilized in some of the
older writings, definitions for those words can be included.
There is the additional goal of making
this site as self-sufficient as possible; to make it
possible for students to work on their own. The continual
challenge is to have the site be useful, but at the same
time not restrict the creativity of the teacher/student.
Hopefully users will communicate with the site provider
(jlrosso@aol.com) with suggestions on how the site could be
better utilized.