New Canaan Country School Bird Studies Take Flight with Tech

There are birds in New Canaan Country School’s Middle School science department. To be more specific, there are 3D models and drawings of finches, hawks, bluebirds and flickers. They do come to life, however, as passersby hold an iPad in front of each one.  A student-made video launches describing the bird through visuals and voice narration, thereby creating an Augmented Reality experience.

“Students really enjoyed this creative outlet,” said sixth grade Science Teacher Margaret Mackey. “They picked a medium that appealed to them, either a fine art, like drawing or painting, or 3D printing which allowed students to build on their Maker skills. They are also facile in iMovie and put their video editing skills to work.”

“We had a lot of freedom to express ourselves in this assignment,” said sixth grader Waverly Walters of New Canaan who created both a drawing and 3D model of a red-tailed hawk, in addition to a video. “We also got to share our work with others which made it more interactive.” 

Students learned about birds through the lens of both ecology and adaptation. In addition to the exhibit, students designed and conducted experiments on bird feeding behavior over the course of the winter. Their findings will be summarized in lab reports which Ms. Mackey plans to submit to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology BirdSleuth K-12, a publication which has included several Country School students’ work over the years.

New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent day school which serves students in Pre-K (ags 3 & 4) through grade 9. Located on a 75-acre campus in New Canaan, the school provides transportation to families living in Westchester and Fairfield counties. For more information, please visit www.countryschool.net.

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Submitted by New Canaan, CT

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