Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Cornell Middle School STEM Program is for the Birds

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 09/06/16

Sometimes STEM is for the birds. That's what middle schoolers learned during a set of free workshops run this summer by Cornell University. The university's Lab of Ornithology's NestWatch citizen-science project brought students together to get lessons in biology, ecology, habitat, mapping and data exploration.

The goal of NestWatch is to monitor and analyze the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, the number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch and how many hatchlings survive. The program is funded in part by the Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which gave a grant of $8,733; that will be repeated over the next two years. SFI is a non-profit that develops sustainable forest management practices and runs a certification program for wood, paper and packaging.

The students also learned how to make and install bird houses, which have provided homes for black-capped chickadees, eastern bluebirds, house wrens and tree swallows, the latter two species in decline in the northeastern United States. Those particular maker projects, which were placed on the grounds of a school in Watertown, NY and on a land trust property in Athens, NY, resulted in the laying of about 80 eggs, the organizers said.

"It has been fun seeing the kids' reactions to the nests and birds and how much they have learned in the process. I really hope some of them are able to channel their passion into lifelong support for conservation and perhaps for some even into a career in forestry or biology," said Robyn Bailey, NestWatch project leader, in a prepared statement. "Students are being exposed to all stages of the nesting cycle, from nest-building, to egg-laying, to young nestlings."

Additional supporters of the project included the university's extension program and the New York State 4-H.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Blurred silhouettes of business people in a modern office with a glowing blue network overlay

    Open Secure AI Alliance Moving Under Linux Foundation

    Governance of the Open Secure AI Alliance has moved to the Linux Foundation, giving the initiative what the organizations describe as a neutral home for developing open source tools, shared standards and defensive practices. The Alliance was launched by NVIDIA in July to develop open security technologies for AI systems and agents.

  • circuit patterns

    Anthropic Intros Lower-Cost Claude Sonnet 5

    Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, positioning the model as its most autonomous mid-tier offering to date and a lower-cost alternative to its flagship Opus 4.8 system. The company said the model can plan multi-step tasks, operate tools such as browsers and terminals, and complete agentic work at a level that previously required larger and more expensive models.

  • Businessman using laptop analyzing data and growth graph chart

    Report: AI Budgets in Education Show No Sign of Decline

    The vast majority of education organizations (98%) expect their AI infrastructure budgets to either increase or hold steady over the next year, according to a report from cloud storage provider Wasabi.

  • Man types on laptop in data center

    Microsoft Announces General Availability of Point-in-Time Restore for Windows 11

    Microsoft has made point-in-time restore generally available for Windows 11, giving users and IT administrators a built-in way to roll back PCs after bad updates, driver problems, app corruption, or other problems.