Students' new approach to birding

Spring is springing, the local birds are beginning to nest in the Trout Creek Study Area out behind the high school, and our biology teacher Rima Givot has her students out counting noses.

Last Monday, in Givot's biology class, students were given the protocols of what their new bird exercise was all about.

First on he agenda was bird diversity, which covered more scientific principles than most birders are prone to understand. Givot's goal is not only to further her students' knowledge of the avian world around them, but to also take on a new way of thinking and know more about the science associated with birds and biology.

Givot used the work done on the famous Darwin's finches of the Galapagos as a starter at looking at bird genetics, showing how finches with shorter, stouter beaks are seed-eaters, while those with longer beaks are fruit eaters.

Darwin let it go at that, but Givot has taken her students into the story of genetics to better understand what's really going on. In Darwin's finches, geneticists have isolated a protein that appears to turn on or off genes that determine beak length.

Givot also used common flickers to help students understand why flickers have been split by zoologists into a northern race, yellow-shafted and others, which also gave her students the opportunity to understand why flickers are larger the further north they range. (They need more body mass to stay warm and as they get bigger, they seek different food sources, which leads to changes in the birds.)

Students were then provided with the scientific principles as to why there are the eastern, western and mountain bluebirds ranging across North America, and how and why their migration pattern are different. (It has to do with varying food sources creating a different niche for each species to occupy.)

Before they went out to explore the area behind the high school, the students were also instructed on how to use binoculars and how to know what and who they were observing and how to record their observations.

One of Givot's students, sophomore Ethan Ferwalt, is looking at another area he thought would be interesting and said this: "As Mrs. Givot is always encouraging creativity and thinking outside the box, I did my best to explore what has perhaps been overlooked by others.

"With a background in music, I'm very audio oriented, and on one of the earlier field days I noticed the cacophony of sound coming from the trees. Rather than simply taking on an ornithological study that's already been done a hundred times, I created my own bird inquiry, simulating a professional scientist's job - invented a question, did research, made a hypothesis, now I'm going collect some data."

He asked how the sound of a species affects its ability to attract a mate and express its territorial prerogatives.

There to help Givot bring about her study goals were four mentors from the Sisters community: Peyton Griffin, retired teacher/biologist; Kris Kristovich, cross-country running coach and world-class bird photographer; Bunny Thompson, Friends of the Sisters Library web master and birder and Sisters Science Club helper; Barb Shulz, computer wizard and person who got Givot and the sister Kenyan high school together.

Before leaving the classroom, Kristovich shared several of his bird photos with the students, among which was a local sapsucker (a type of woodpecker). Griffin and Givot then used the photos to begin a powerful discussion about hybridization of birds, and especially the hybridization of sapsuckers the students could expect to see.

When the students left for the outside experience everyone was eager to see who was out there, but many students were also interested to learn how and why.

Barb Shulz has been constructing several research projects for schools in the Sisters community. She had this to say about her experiences: "Birding with high school students is like opening a new door. For some students it is quite wonderful, and for others it also teaches patience and perseverance."

One young woman is excited about monitoring bluebird nesting boxes placed in the study area by a group from Black Butte Ranch.

"Data collected from this project will be sent to Cornell University," Shulz said, "providing the students an opportunity to cooperate and communicate with scientists conducting nation-wide bird studies, which opens any number of other educational opportunities."