On Tuesday mornings in the hour before school this fall, the Long-View building has been unusually quiet. That’s because a sizable chunk of our learner population can be found down the street, at the park, with binoculars in hand, looking for birds.
Birding Club meets once a week, but every day in the Science Block for this year’s younger bands, Marigold and Indigo, avian themes are guiding explorations of all kinds. Because many older learners experienced a first iteration of these themes in their own Science Blocks several years ago, birding has begun to feel like an important part of Long-View’s culture. Learners and teachers alike can be found quizzing each other with bird identification cards before or after school, or hanging out on the porch by the feeders, debating whether the bird that just perched on the railing was an Eastern Phoebe or a Northern Mockingbird.
As Ms. Zapalac – one of our co-founders and an avid birder – pointed out, birding at Long-View isn’t really (or, only) about the birds. In a recent conversation, Mr. Cooley, who leads Science for Marigold and Indigo, discussed the practices and concepts that underlie this curricular work, as well as his own fascination with the study of birds. Here are some excerpts from his remarks: We’re starting off with observational skills, like drawing birds and field notebooks, as well as identification….
Read More