Summary
Essential Question(s)
How do bird activity and migration change seasonally? Why is understanding the timing of seasonal bird activity and migration important?
Snapshot
Engage
Students examine a model of migration timing of several species of Warblers.
Explore
Students explore a model of species-specific bird migration patterns.
Explain
Students investigate the life history of birds and connect their annual cycle to changes in migration timing.
Extend
Students continue investigating the model of bird migration, identifying patterns over time and among species.
Evaluate
Materials
Engage
Go to slide #. Tell students that in this lesson they are going to look at birds and their migration. Begin by asking students to explain some ways birds and insects are related. Specifically, you are helping students connect the previous lesson to the activities in which they are about to engage. After asking for student ideas, show them the rest of the slide to provide context for the birds they will be investigating.
Go to slide #. Students will now explore the “Warbler Arrival” page of the Shiny app. Give them some time to explore the data and ask them to use the I Notice, I Wonder strategy as they play with the model. If you are using a Driving Question Board (DQB), have students record their questions on sticky notes. If students need help finding a starting place, consider un-hiding slide # and suggesting some focus areas:
Pick one or more species and change the capture threshold to see how day of year patterns change (bottom graph).
Pick one or more species and see how the capture % changes across different decades (top graph).
Pick one of the graphs to look at, and compare two or more species by looking at their data individually.
After the students have had time to make some observations (I notice) and ask questions, bring the class together to discuss their findings. First, ask for volunteers to share out what they noticed and guide them to share their observations in terms of patterns. Then move on to student questions (I wonder), adding them to the class list or Driving Question Board.
Explore
Following the discussion of bird arrival, students should direct their attention to the “Aerial Insectivore Migration” page of the Shiny app. Make sure students understand which variables they can change, before turning them loose to answer the following question: “Which species tends to be the earliest to complete its northward migration?” For simplicity, they only need to use one map for this exercise, though they are welcome to use both. The students can ignore the measurements in the data table below the maps for now.
After students have had time to figure out which species “gets to the north first,” ask each group to share out how they reached their conclusion. They should conclude that Tree Swallows tend to be the earliest arrivals north. Some groups may come to a different answer, depending on what data they explored within the model, but this is okay provided they can justify it.
Next, ask students to brainstorm some factors that would affect the timing of birds’ migration north. Depending on your class, you can either do this informally, or have students turn their speculations into questions for the Driving Question Board. Encourage them to think about biotic and abiotic factors and to be specific. For example, if they offer climate change as an answer, probe them for what aspect of climate change they think is affecting birds (e.g., warmer spring temperatures). If they struggle to come up with ideas, prompt them to think about some of the factors that affected insects as a place to start.
Explain
Next, place students in groups of 3-4, if they are not already, to learn about of the bird species from the data they just explored. There are 10 bird species available for exploration, and each group should select/be assigned to one. Go to slide # and provide students with the Lesson 2 Explain handout. Direct students to visit the All About Birds Guide website and read over the Life History of their selected species. They can explore whatever details they want beyond that, including returning to the Shiny app to make more detailed notes about their bird’s range. Additionally, students should investigate some of the factors they brainstormed at the end of the Explore. These can be assigned to different groups, or students can explore whichever they are specifically interested in learning about.
Go to slides #-#. These cover basic bird life history as it relates to migration, including the annual cycle. Ask student groups to share out what they learned about their species’ life histories. Continue to slides #-#. These slides provide an overview of some common ways bird data is collected. Detailed information and explanations are provided in the notes section of these slides.
Return students attention to their Shiny observations. Lead them in a discussion to connect life history with the patterns they identified in the data.
Take a few minutes to review the DQB and add new concepts to the Big Ideas list before continuing to the next activity.
Extend
Students should select a bird species for Map 1 and compare the arrival timing for the species across several different years, making note about any trends or patterns they see in the data. Next they should repeat this process for a different species on Map 2, looking again for trends and patterns in this data set. After making their initial observations of the data, students are free to compare the maps in whatever way they want in order to gather more observations. This may include comparing the same species for two different years, comparing two species across the same year(s), or examining more species. Encourage students to make specific observations related to latitude, timing, etc. If there are relevant DQB questions for students to explore with this model, have the class attempt to answer these as well.
Students should record their findings using a modified Window Notes format, with the following “windows”: trends within a year, trends between years, trends between species, and other interesting trends.
Have students share out some of their findings from the Shiny app activity and discuss the significance of these results.
Evaluate
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Resources
Birds, Bugs, and Phenology https://aeroecology.shinyapps.io/Birds_Bugs_and_Phenology/
All About Birds Guide https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/
Birds of the World https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home
How I Know It strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/144
I Notice, I Wonder strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
Window Notes strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/189