Spotlight on the 1995
SIGTel
Online Award Winners
International Conservation
Continuum
Michele
Flores-Ward
Ken Crowell, Marnie
Crowell
McKenney Middle
School
99 State St.
Canton, NY 13617 USA
Paragraph
Summary
No organism or group of organisms on the planet can exist without
influencing,
or being influenced by, other living things and the surrounding
environment.
We interact, not only within our own neighborhoods, but within a
larger global
continuum. A specific example of our sharing (and influencing)
organisms is
the yearly migration of neotropical birds from Central America to the
United
States and Canada. MISTNET is an electronic mail list linking birders
and school
students across countries to track the wave of neotropical migrant
birds as
it moves north in the spring, especially the Northern Oriole, Wood
Thrush, and
Yellow Warbler. Journey North is a network of approximately 330
schools in Canada
and the United States tracking the advent of spring through ice out,
leaf out,
and other seasonal changes. In 1995, my seventh-grade class at
McKenney Middle
School became the "Northen Oriole Squad" to which sitings of the
oriole were
reported from AT&T Learning Circle schools and Journey North
schools. This
information is relayed to MISTNET and other MISTNET happenings are
filtered
through us to these students. The Northern Oriole which wintered in
southern
Texas will soon be sited in Georgia, and then Maryland, and then on
our own
Adirondack doorstep. What better way to learn to recognize ourselves
as one
large community and create an awareness for our stewardship of the
Earth?
Objectives of the
Lesson
The student will be able to:
- Define community, equilibrium, resource conservation
- Produce a model of a natural community with a directional sequence
of changes
- Describe evidences that show that matter and energy are exchanged
between
members of a community
- Compare/contrast natural and human-made disturbance of
balance
- Predict the outcome of a disturbance of balance
- Cite specific examples of how the resources used and produced by
all living
things illustrate the interdependence of all living things
Hardware/Software
Needed
Access to a computer with a modem
Telecommunications
Resources Needed
The host computer needs to be a subscriber to a service that acts as
a gateway
to the Internet
Importance of
Telecommunications
in this Plan
There is no plan possible without telecommunications. One could
"snail-mail"
sitings of neotropical birds and never achieve the same results.
Immediacy is
at the heart of this project—the ability to share information
with literally
hundreds of schools, using one e-mail "address" and having that
information
accessed within seconds. The migration can then be visually tracked on
maps
within the classrooms. The globe is finally, concretely shared between
all of
us.
Curriculum Area(s)
Involved
- Life science
- Geography/social studies
- English/creative writing
Grade Level(s)
Targeted
I am using this project with my seventh grade. My AT&T partners
include
Grades 7–12. Journey North spans Grades 5–9.
Class Management
Strategies
- assign students to download messages and e-mail out their own
sitings
- field trips to local Nature Centers and Adirondack Park
- ornithologist guest speaker
- assign students to post hard copy of sitings and track birds on
bulletin
board
- orchestrate cooperative learning groups to create models of
various communities
and present them to their peers
Class Time
Required
Fifteen school days for the global continuum subunit, three months
for the
entire ecology unit, three months (March through May) for the
telecommunications
about the Northern Oriole
Print Materials
Needed
Bird guidebook with color photos of the neotropical migratory birds,
life science
text, map(s) extending from Central America through Canada.
Procedures/Activities
After a "kick-off" visit by an ornithologist, I divide my students
into cooperative
learning groups of four. Each group is assigned a different class of
bird and
must study and present its various adaptations (body shape, beak,
feet, etc.).
These presentations can be in video, puppet show, skit, or model form.
We also
"bird" on our school's Nature Trail and on several field trips. Groups
are then
re-shuffled and assigned a biome. Again, the task is to take the
remainder of
the class mentally to that biome and impress upon us the flora and
fauna, temperature
and rainfall variations. In the past, I have seen the coniferous biome
re-created
in pinecones painted green to represent the trees and assorted animal
cut-outs
placed within that forest. The tropical students fed us macademia nuts
and the
marine people acted out a play and sprayed us with salt water. Lastly,
in yet
again new groups, communities are doled out with either a natural or
human-made
disturbance. The results must be hypothesized and modeled.
An accompanying activity is the interchange of two blocks of soil on
the school
grounds and observations of the ensuing changes over several weeks.
Throughout
this unit, students check the e-mail and note sitings of the Northern
Oriole
along the flyway. These are visually recorded on maps in the
classroom. Most
of the MISTNET birds reach the Canadian border by the second week of
May (which
the Smithsonian has designated International Migratory Bird Week). We
will have
a "Welcome Back" party to celebrate their arrival and explore methods
of preserving
these species in our area (such as curtailing the activities of
housecats and
growing the appropriate garden plants).
Method(s) for Evaluating
Student
Achievement of Objectives
A teacher-made rubric will be used to assess each presentation:
students are
scored upon total group participation, organization, content, diverse
sources
of information, visuals, creativity, conscientious effort and
attention to detail.
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