This collection of lesson plans and activities allows students to learn about birds through scavenger hunts, activity books, hands-on activities, and more. This section of the collection is beneficial to educators and teachers, as well as students who are interested in learning more about birds in a fun and engaging way.
Before leaving the nest, albatross chicks regurgitate a mass of indigestible material called a bolus. Boluses give us clues as to the types of food and trash eaten by albatross parents at sea. In this lesson, students will use professional photographs of a bolus to perform a “virtual dissection” and analysis.
Go on a seabird scavenger hunt in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary! Click through the Cordell Bank seabird pages to find answers on this scavenger “web quest”. It includes a video, various online resources, and a virtual seabirding trip.
Learn about the seabirds and shorebirds that inhabit Hawai’i through a word search, crafts, and more in this activity book.
Albatrosses, charismatic and threatened seabirds, are ambassadors for a clean ocean. They traverse vast oceanic regions searching for floating food. Along their journeys, they ingest plastic trash and are hooked in fisheries. These five lessons use inquiry-based science instruction, aligned to standards for grades 6-8 with extensions for grades 9-12.
Students can travel through the islands and atolls of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument with this fun activity book.
Each year Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary attaches satellite tags to 10 great shearwaters to follow their feeding forays around the Gulf of Maine and nearby NW Atlantic waters. Some tags survive well into the winter migration. Participating teachers and schools can obtain a data set of daily locations (one point a day per bird -- emailed as spreadsheets every one to two weeks) and two maps -- one of the Gulf of Maine and one of the Atlantic Ocean to follow the tracks of the birds in their classrooms.
This interactive comic takes students through the Hawaiian Islands with Makani, the albatross who cares for the land.
Utilize the Manu O Kū-Gami to make origami Mano O Kū- a significant bird in Hawaiian culture.
The Bald Eagle Webcams provide an intimate view of the breeding and nesting behavior of bald eagles at the Channel Islands. In spring 2006, the first chick to hatch unaided by humans on the Channel Islands in over 50 years made headlines across the country. Thrilled with the public interest in this historic event, the National Park Service and its partners established webcams that bring live, streaming images of bald eagle nests into the schools and homes of millions of Americans.
