by
Linda Davis
1.
Background Information
§ Pertinent
reading material: This activity reflects on an article the students were read
aloud in the preparation part of this lesson and their textbook they used in
the assisting part of this lesson.
A brief summary of each is
included in the activity section of this write-up.
§ Bibliography:
Springston, Rex. Dangerous
Migration. Richmond Times-Dispatch. April 27, 2000.
Section E, pages E1-E3.
Biggs, A., Kapicka, C., and
Lundgren, L.. Biology The
Dynamics of Life. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
1995. Pg. 846-858.
§ Audience:
These students are enrolled in a high school biology class this year. They have not studied about birds in
their classes yet. They have an
interest in biology. Their reading
levels are high. These students
make very good grades and are extremely easy to teach because they take their
schoolwork seriously.
2.
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to reflect on what the students have learned about birds using
a brainstorming activity.
3.
Objectives:
§ Students
will be able to design a plan to help the migratory bird populations increase
their numbers.
§ Students
will be able to list ways humans can help the migratory bird populations.
§ Students
will be able to give characteristics of birds that must remain unchanged in the
plan.
§ Students
will be able to examine the history of the migratory bird populations, and
predict what will happen if nothing is done to help these birds.
§ Students
will be able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the plan.
§ The
student will investigate and understand life functions of monerans, protists,
fungi, plants, and animals, including
humans.
4.
Activity
The reflection activity used in this lesson is
brainstorming. Brainstorming is a reflective and creative activity for the
students. Brainstorming is a
higher level thinking activity as well.
The students must solve a problem together, and reach a group
decision. The students will be
given the task of designing a plan to help increase some of the migratory bird
populations. The plan should
include ways humans can help the migratory birds, characteristics of birds that
must remain unchanged, ways the students can get their ideas known to the
public, and what will happen to the population numbers if nothing is done. They will have to discuss the
advantages and the disadvantages of the plan.
The students will be able to design a plan by reflecting on
what they have already studied.
The students had an article titled “Dangerous Migration”
read aloud to them earlier when learning about birds. The article was on the migration routes certain bird species
encounter each year. It included
problems the birds face, how humans can help birds have a smoother flight, why
certain species numbers have declined, and general facts about migration. The students have also read the section
in their textbook that covered birds.
After reading the section the students created a map about birds. The map included the topics: body,
feathers, origins, and adaptations.
The students can use their maps in this activity to aid them in
designing a plan. This allows the
map to also be used as a reflection activity.
This activity involves creative thinking. Therefore, the students can design many
different plans. However, a good
plan should include at least some of the following.
§ Humans
can help by: moving bird feeders away from windows, making windows easier for
birds to see by applying netting outside their windows or attaching hawk
silhouettes to the window’s surface, helping stunned birds recover,
keeping their cats inside, taking stray cats to a local animal shelter, keeping
bird feeders out of a cat’s reach, spaying or neutering their cats,
turning off all lights during the peak migration seasons in the fall and
spring, writing letters to the owners of skyscrapers and asking them to turn
their lights off at night during peak migration periods, not using pesticides
unless absolutely necessarily, and trying to use alternatives to pesticides.
§ One
important idea the students should include is that the migratory birds are
adapted to where they live and their migratory routes. Therefore, students cannot change the
birds’ locations or behavior.
§ The
students need to include some type of way they will get their plan out to the
public. This can include many
different ideas.
§ The
students also need to include what will possibly happen if the birds are not
helped.
v The
teacher needs to use his or her best judgment to decide if the students have
designed a proper plan. Ask
students questions to ensure they have looked at every side of their plan. It is important the teacher helps guide
the students, as they need help.
I would use this activity in a biology classroom. I would place the students in-groups of
five, and have each group design a plan of their own. After all the groups have designed a plan, I would bring the
class together and the groups would present their ideas. As a class the students would discuss
the advantages and disadvantages of the plans. Finally, after discussing the plans the students would
decide which plan would produce the best results for the migratory bird
species.
5.
Procedure:
a.
The teacher will tell the students they need to design a plan
that will help increase migratory bird population numbers. The plan should include ways humans can
help, what characteristics of the birds must remain unchanged in the plan, ways
the students can get their plan out to the public, what will happen possibly if
nothing is done, and the advantages and disadvantages of the plan.
b.
The teacher will tell the students they can use their
textbook, the map they created, and the article.
c.
At this point the students will get into a group, and start
discussing their ideas. This will
last approximately 30 to 40 minutes.
By the end of this time the students should be prepared to discuss their
plan with the teacher.
d.
The students report to the teacher what their plan consists
of. If the students forget to
report any of the necessities the plan was supposed to include the teacher
should ask the students about it.
The teacher should also ask the students if they think their plan is a
good one, and if it should be used to help the population numbers.
e.
The teacher should point out the good ideas the students came
up with, and question some of the ideas that may have flaws. In no way should the teacher make the
students feel like they have failed.
The teacher should always promote creative thinking.
6.
Evaluation:
The following is a summary of the students’ final
plan.
There are many ways humans can help some of the migratory bird species
increase their population numbers.
Most birds migrate in April and May at night. This is when humans should get the most involved. First, we can keep our cats inside
during this period, and go with them outside when they need to go to the
bathroom. This way we can watch
them, and make sure they do not attack any of the birds outside. We can also get our cats fixed, and
take stray cats we find to the SPCA.
We also need to put our bird feeders away from our houses so the birds
do not accidentally crash into our windows. We can also help make sure the birds do not crash into the
windows by putting up netting over the windows and placing hawk silhouettes on
the windows. The hawk silhouettes
will scare the birds away so they will not fly into the windows. We should also turn our lights off at
night so the birds do not get confused and fly into our windows.
In our last lesson about birds we learned they are adapted to their
environment. So we cannot try to
catch all the birds and move them to a safer environment. This would be too difficult. This is why it is important humans
change their behaviors, and make it safer for the birds to live here.
It is important these ideas reach the public because everyone needs to
know about the problems the migratory birds are facing. Perhaps we could get on the news or
some other television show.
Sometimes, the news does specials on teens that are trying to make a
difference. We could tell them all
about the simple things humans can do to help. We could also try to collect money to buy acres of wooded
areas for the birds to live in safely.
Since the birds’ habitat is being destroyed if we could get the
word out and raise money to save it, then the birds would have somewhere safe
to live. Finally, we could get the
word out by writing the owners of skyscrapers, and asking them to turn their
lights off at night during April and May.
If nothing is done to help the birds then their numbers may continue to
decrease. If the numbers get too
low then the bird species can possibly go extinct. This is why humans must take an active role now.
The advantage of our plan is that if it actually worked then the
population numbers would increase.
There are a lot of disadvantages though. First, it would be extremely hard to get all these people
involved. We cannot make the
people do it; they have to want to do it.
We also are assuming we could get on TV, which would be difficult. People would have to change their ways
of living. It is hard to make
people change.
This activity went better than I expected. The students included many ideas I had not thought about. They also included birds’ characteristics better than I anticipated. I did not expect them to include the months and time birds migrate or where the birds’ habitat is found. They took the topics they had learned about and designed a plan that showed they understood what they had learned. The students worked together well, and everyone included ideas for the plan. They seemed like they really enjoyed the activity. There was a lot of discussion, and some disagreement. However, by the end of the activity they were all in agreement. Afterwards, I asked them if they have done many brainstorming activities, and they said they had done a few, but not many. This made me even more amazed at how well they did.