How can an engineer design a bird feeder that attracts many birds? This question resulted from kindergarten students' observations of the bird feeders in their school's bird sanctuary. The challenging question is the heart of project-based learning (PBL), a teaching strategy in which students tackle real-world problems and design projects to solve…

This inquiry-based activity for high school students introduces concepts of ecology and the importance of data analysis to science. Using an investigative case, students generate independent questions about birds, access Cornell Lab of Ornithology online resources to collect data, organize and graph data using Excel, and make claims based on…

When high school students are asked what's the best part of science class, many will say it's the field trips. Students enjoy engaging in authentic, community-based science outside the classroom. To capitalize on this, Patrick Willis created the Bird Box Survey Project for his introductory field biology class. The project takes students…

Presents ideas for teaching ecology in the winter. Suggested topic areas or units include snow insulation and density, snowflakes and snow crystals, goldenrod galls, bird behavior, survival techniques, bacteriology and decomposition, trees and keying, biomass and productivity, pollution, and soil organisms. A sample student activity sheet is…

This monograph is the first attempt to collect and share some of the teaching techniques, activities, and ideas of former recipients of the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award. The lessons are organized into topical themes to facilitate their incorporation into standard curriculum. The manual is divided into two main sections, "Labs" and "Ideas."…