Birding and Beyond                                                Spring 2022

Students and teachers must be able to readily switch to online lessons at any point in the semester in order to register for classes. All students must complete a project for these classes.
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​Sherry Manison    7sherrym@gmail.com  
Location -- Various birding spots around the county  (Please read the syllabus entirely before choosing this class. Entrance fees may be required at birding locations)
Format: In person with some virtual meetings
Classes begin Jan. 20
If face-to-face:  Thursdays 9:00 - 11:00 AM, two or three times a month, with the possibility of additional evening or virtual meetings 

Grades K-12  Note: Parents are asked to accompany pre-teen students. 

Birding and Beyond is a great introduction to the world of nature! Our main focus will be on birds, but we will also notice other flora and fauna around us. Students will learn to be more aware of the birds around them wherever they go, particularly around their own homes. We will learn to recognize birds in the wild using their common names, and develop a beginning familiarity with their habits, habitats, bird families, identifying features, and some basic bird anatomy. We will introduce being in tune to bird sounds, recognizing that learning the songs of birds can help us identify them. Each semester that the class is taught we will highlight another area of birds and birding (such as feathers, beaks and bills, migration patterns, bird songs, etc.). 

Studying birds and being outside to observe them will open doors for other nature areas. During each semester we will have a class or two on other aspects of nature, such as frogs, flowers, ecology, etc. 

Birds are more active in the mornings and evenings. Therefore, we will meet from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. on ten Thursdays during the semester, in-person if possible. If face-to-face is not possible, we will accommodate. Love Creek will be our in-person home base and the site of our first class, but we will also go birding at different locations and habitats around the county. 

​Note: Depending on our “And Beyond” part of the class, we may need to meet one Thursday evening during the semester. 

Note: If face-to-face, we will meet formally for a short time, and use the remaining class time to look for birds in the woods, prairie, beach, swamp, and other habitats. If necessary, we will divide the class into two groups, an hour per group. If we are online, our whole class will meet for an hour on Zoom. You need to have two hours of birding per class, so if we go to one-hour classes, each family group will be asked to go to suggested spots on their own for at least an hour outside of class, and report back. The internet is useful for resources, so we may opt to do a zoom class once or twice during the semester, even if we are otherwise face-to-face.


Required Materials: Bring your own binoculars (8x42 or 10x42 are most common), and dress for the outdoors, including bug spray when needed. We may need rubber boots at one or two places. A field guide is handy, but not required. A Michigan recreational passport is recommended, as we usually go to Warren Dunes at least once. 

​If we go to someone’s house to see their tame birds or feeder birds, it is requested (not required) that as a courtesy and a thank-you, we bring something to feed their birds --for the peacocks, frozen blueberries or strawberries, and for feeder birds, wild birdseed mix, thistle seed, black oil sunflower seeds, etc. You may also opt to donate toward birdseed. The homeowners are not requesting this, but it is courtesy. 

Syllabus

*Please note: it is important to make as informed a decision as possible when choosing your student's Community Resource classes. Most locations will allow a student to drop a class after one meeting, at no charge if it wasn't a good fit for the student, but not all. Some classes plan ahead based on the number that have signed up and have purchased materials, hired teachers, etc. and there might be a fee for class time or materials given to the student if the student drops after one or two meetings. The school cannot pay for classes that students do not complete, so choose wisely; if you do not take the class off of your student's schedule by the deadline, you may be asked to pay for the class time incurred prior to dropping the class.

Teacher of Record: Tom Hurst