Hubbard Brook scientists have been studying birds continuously at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest since 1969, compiling one of the most detailed studies of Neotropical migratory birds in North America. This represents two significant resources for educators: first, a large body of knowledge detailing the population ecology and life histories of many migratory bird species, and second, a variety of examples of how researchers ask questions and the methods used to pursue the answers. With increased curricular emphasis on inquiry in today's classroom, we've developed lessons that combine information about local migratory bird species with the methods scientists use to study them. This effort has resulted in a set of Migratory Bird Science and Math Lessons, which includes nine science and math lessons for grades 7 through 12; slide shows that explore Neotropical migratory birds and the methods used to study them; and additional resources for teachers, students, and parents. It is our hope that this resource will generate interest in ecology as well as support students' development in science inquiry skills.

 

The nine lessons offered below are not presented in any strict order, but generally progress from basic to advanced. Science lessons are listed first and math lessons listed second; some lessons are appropriate across the two disciplines. Teachers need not follow lessons sequentially and can select the lessons that best match their classroom objectives. The lessons are categorized into the one of the following three skill levels:

 

Basic: Most likely appropriate for middle school or non-college prep courses.

 

Average: Most likely appropriate for advanced middle school or college-bound high school courses.

 

Advanced: Most likely appropriate for college-bound high school courses.

 

All lessons include a link to the grades 8 and 11 New Hampshire Science and/or Math Frameworks that are aligned with each lesson. The three slideshows offered below are referred to in some of the lessons and are excellent resources that you might use to further explore migratory birds. Each is presented as a PDF file and should be viewed in Full Screen Mode.

 

 

Slideshow 1:


Introduction to Migratory Birds

 

Slideshow - 1

Slideshow 2:


Methods of Bird Research

 

Slideshow - 1

Slideshow 3:


Where Have All the Songbirds Gone?

 

Slideshow - 1

LESSONS

Lesson One:
Getting to Know You

 

Support Materials
-Introductory Slides - Part I
-Short Methods Slideshow

 

Skill level: Basic

 

Classes appropriate for:

Life Science, Biology, Environmental Science

 

This lesson is designed to serve as an introduction to New England's migratory birds as well as to familiarize students with research methods used to study these birds at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Four species that can be found in our region are highlighted: American Redstart, Bicknell's Thrush, Black‐throated Blue Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler. Although it may be hard to spot each of these species in your schoolyard, they are important species that represent a diversity of life and habitat characteristics typical of New England's migratory songbirds. One of these species, Bicknell's Thrush, is globally rare and is restricted to high elevation spruce‐fir forests – habitat that is expected to shrink as global climate warms. All four species are well‐studied and a wealth of information exists about these species on the internet and in other published sources.

 

Lesson Four:
Message in a Song

 

Support Materials
-Introductory Slides

 

Skill level: Advanced


Classes appropriate for:

Biology, Environmental Science

 

An important skill scientists must have is the ability to read and understand literature that describes research done by other scientists in their field. This lesson asks students to read a published account of bird research and tests their ability to grasp key components of that research. All science begins with questions and not necessarily complicated questions that, in some cases, highschool and middleschool students might pose. In the case of this article, Hubbard Brook researcher Nick Rodenhouse asks the question: How do birds chose a location for their nests? The provided article demonstrates to students how a series of research questions or hypotheses are posed by scientists and how data are collected to support or reject these hypotheses. If students are successful at parsing out the hypotheses and experimental design of the study described in the article provided, they will not only have mastered reading comprehension for a science article, but also developed skills that will allow them to understand how science operates by building on previous work.

Lesson Seven:
Finding Food in the Forest

 

Support Materials
-Foraging Strategies of NH Songbirds

 

Skill level: Average


Classes appropriate for:

Middle School Math

 

About 80 species of birds breed in the forests of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock, New Hampshire. Breeding involves the building of nests, mating, laying of eggs, and caring for young; it requires a lot of energy. Where do these breeding birds most efficiently find the food needed to survive and raise their young? Why do some of these birds migrate to the Neotropics while others stay put? This lesson allows students to answer these questions by providing them with data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and asking them to perform calculations with decimals and percentages based on these data.

Lesson Two:
Birds Fly from Here to Where?

 

Support Materials

-Habitat: Tropical or Temperate?

 

Skill level: Basic

 

Classes appropriate for:

Life Science, Biology, Environmental Science

 

Migration occurs primarily as a means for birds to exploit the richest sources of food and it is one of the most important aspects of their life cycle. The purpose of this lesson is for students to become familiar with Neotropical migratory birds and the methods researchers use to study their migration. Why do they migrate? To where do they migrate, and what are these habitats like? Do all of the migratory birds in New England migrate to the same areas and along the same pathways? How are researchers able to learn about the timing of migration and the location of migratory pathways? Students will explore the reason for migration, be introduced to habitat characteristics in the tropics, sketch examples of migratory pathways, and identify the methods that researchers use to study migration.

 

Lesson Five:
Bye-bye Birdie

 

Support Materials

-Bird Abundance Data 1969-2010
-Change in Bird Abundance Graph
-Habitat Preferences of Four Bird Species

 

Skill level: Advanced


Classes appropriate for:

Biology, Environmental Science, Ecology

 

Avian ecologists (scientists who study the ecology of birds) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest have been collecting data on birds for over 40 years. These data represent one of the longest bird studies ever conducted and have allowed scientists to try to answer questions such as: How do the population sizes of different species of birds change over time? What types of habitats do birds favor? What types of food do they prefer to eat? Which animals prey upon birds? How does climate affect birds? Using these data, scientists are able to learn more about what sorts of natural or human influences affect bird populations, and why. This is an excellent example of one of the benefits of long-term monitoring. By graphing bird abundance data collected from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest from 1969-2010, students will identify population trends among birds, observe the value of long-term data collection, and develop science process skills by designing additional studies to further investigate factors affecting bird abundance.

Lesson Eight:
Calorie Counting is for the Birds

 

Support Materials
-Introductory Slides

 

Skill level: Average


Classes appropriate for:

Middle School Math

 

One of the greatest feats in avian biology is the process by which many migratory songbirds, weighing barely a third of an ounce, can manage to find and consume enough calories to sustain their thousand mile journey from their breeding grounds to wintering grounds and back again. Similar to Migration Math, this lesson explores the energy requirements of migrating birds. However, while the skills required to perform the calculations are similar, the context of this lesson is conceptually more advanced: Students will hypothesize and then calculate which animal—a migrating songbird or human—requires more calories relative to its body weight.

Lesson Three:
Hunt and Peck

 

Support Materials
-Master Graph

 

Skill level: Average

 

Classes appropriate for:

Life Science, Biology, Environmental Science

 

Neotropical migratory birds make use of a variety of foods throughout their life cycle, yet every year they migrate to the temperate forests of New England to feed on insects. They risk the long journey because during summer months, the food in the temperate forests is more caloric, nutrient rich, and abundant than that in the tropics. In order to learn the types and amount of insects available to birds during the summer, avian scientists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest walk along imaginary fixed lines—called transects—through the forest and survey the insects found along these lines. The purpose of this lesson is to: a) teach students that birds migrate to find food; b) introduce the transect as a key research method that is used to collect data in an efficient manner; and c) build awareness and understanding for the reasons that scientists want to collect these data. Students will use a basic arthropod identification guide to collect data along a simulated transect, represent this data graphically, and then analyze the results.

Lesson Six:
Migration Math

 

Support Materials
-Introductory Slides

 

Skill level: Basic


Classes appropriate for:

Middle School Math

 

One of the greatest feats in avian biology is the process by which many migratory songbirds, weighing barely a third of an ounce, can manage to find and consume enough calories to sustain a round trip journey of over one thousand miles, from their breeding grounds to wintering grounds and back again. In addition to reinforcing basic math skills, this lesson is designed to give students a practical exercise in calculating the number of calories needed to sustain successful migration, and the amount of food needed to fuel the journey. The provided information on migratory flight distances comes from the Smithsonian Migratory Research Center's fact sheet Neotropical Migratory Bird Basics.

Lesson Nine:
Energy Expenditures

 

Support Materials
-Breeding Cycle Phases
-Energy Used by Bird Activities

 

Skill level: Advanced


Classes appropriate for:

High School Algebra

 

One of the goals of avian research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest has been to understand what is needed for birds to survive and reproduce. To do so, researchers must first know how much energy birds require to perform vital functions and sustain themselves. This lesson aims to share the methods and results of this research with students while providing an interesting and real life example as the context for students to practice solving word problems. The first part of this lesson is aimed at strengthening students’ science inquiry skills through guided discussion, focusing on how scientists calculate energy budgets for birds. The second part builds on the first by allowing students to apply math skills to real data in order to quantitatively illustrate the concepts from the first part.



Additional Resources

 

Alignment of New Hampshire Frameworks with Lessons

Information on Birds

Educational Materials for Teachers

Ecology Module; What Limits the Reproductive Success of Migratory Birds?

Citizen Science and Service-Learning Projects

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

The Migratory Bird Science and Math Lessons were developed in partnership between the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation and the USDA Forest Service/Northern Research Station. Funding was also provided by the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Networks Schoolyard Program. The lessons were developed by Jackie Wilson (HBRF), with helpful input from Sarah Turtle and Jessica Halm. The content of the lessons and slide shows reflect the views of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, which is responsible for the facts and accuracy of the information presented herein.

 

We are grateful for the inspiration, research and assistance of Richard T. Holmes, who has been a lead investigator at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest since the inception of its avian research program in 1969. We also wish to thank and acknowledge the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and two of its staff: Mary Deinlein, Education Specialist, who developed Bridging the Americas/Unidos por las Aves, a cross-cultural environmental education program that links elementary school classes in the US with classes in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Scott Sillett, avian scientist, who introduced HBRF staff to the Bridging the Americas curriculum. Our work with the Bridging the Americas program served as the catalyst for this guide.

 

We were fortunate to have the assistance of many supportive scientists as we developed this guide. The contributions of the following researchers to the content include: Matt Betts (Oregon State University), Bill DeLuca (UMass at Amherst), Richard Holmes (Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College), Pamela Hunt (NH Fish and Wildlife), Katie Langin (Colorado State University), Peter Marra (SMBC), Len Reitsma, (Plymouth State University), Chris Rimmer (Vermont Center for Ecostudies), Nick Rodenhouse (Wellesley College), W. Scott Schwenk (University of Vermont), Scott Sillett (Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center) and Helen Sofaer (Colorado State University).

 

We also wish to thank the following for their input and contributions: Amey Bailey, Scott Bailey, Richard Baker, Melissa Bowlin, Susan Bradfield, Natalie Cleavitt, Diane Daniels, Sarah Garlick, Jessica Halm, Donni Hughes, Chris Matlack, Mary Ann McGarry, Sara Joncas, Michelle Jutras, Gail Poitrast, Sara Sanborn, Karen Sturges, Patricia Sturges, Sheryl Sturges, Sarah Thorne, Dave Webster, Geoff Wilson, and Will Yandik.

 

Finally, we are appreciative for the generous permission given by the following people and organizations for use of their work and materials: The Boston Globe correspondent Billy Baker, the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, the Harcourt Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, the New Scientist Magazine, Raintree Nutrition, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and avian photographer Robert Royse, whose photos appear on this page.