End-of-semester reflection on A Birdsong Program

As the semester came to a close we were sad to bid farewell to our friends in A Birdsong Program, one of the outreach programs many of our lab members participate in. Every Friday this spring we joined Cornell graduate and undergraduate students and the career skills class from the Smith School at BOCES to learn about birds. We met all over the place: at the BOCES campus both inside the classroom and outside, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Stewart Park. Together we shared our interests in birds, social behavior, perception, and communication. Occasionally we were joined by other community partners, such as educators from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Raptor Center. These guests were able to answer all our questions and share their knowledge about and enthusiasm for birds.

Graciella Rivera, a recently graduated member of our lab, was part of the Cornell Raptor Program. She came (along with some friends!) to teach us all about raptors.

My personal favorite day of the semester was the last one, on which students shared with each other the science outreach projects they had been developing. Following the principles of participatory design, Cornell and BOCES students worked together to identify learning interests, brainstorm bird-centered activities and games, and workshop these ideas over the course of several meetings.

In the afternoon group, which I was a member of, the students developed two activities. One was badminton birdie, a craft activity where we designed badminton birdies around real bird species. People designed some really crazy-looking birdies! The other activity was birding bingo (see the Birdsong page for a description of this activity and how it was developed) for which we went birding in the wooded area on the BOCES campus. Each small group of students had a bingo sheet filled with birding objectives (e.g., "find a flock of birds"). We enjoyed walking around looking for birds, and on our walk back to the classroom at the end of class one of the groups got their bingo when they found a holes from a woodpecker on a tree.

We had hoped to share these activities with other BOCES classes, but the schedule unfortunately didn't work out for that to happen. Instead, our group completed both activities together, which was still quite fun. Hopefully next semester we can do these outreach activities with the larger school community.

For one activity, we crafted more bird-like badminton birdies! We didn't have time to actually play with them during class, so we left them in the BOCES classroom so students could test them out another day.

Celia's bird(ie), a white dove.

I was so impressed by the work students had done all semester, and had a wonderful time engaging in the activities with everyone. As we said goodbye at the end of our meeting time, I realized how much we had gotten to know and appreciate each other. I already knew the BOCES staff and a few of the Cornell students previously, and was familiar with the BOCES students. Over the semester we learned each other's quirks, communication styles, and interests, so by the last day I felt quite comfortable moving around to connect with the different groups as we walked around outside playing bird bingo. I ended the day feeling so happy and proud of everyone, but also sad because I knew I would miss our group.

This experience was also a learning opportunity for me. I've spent time in the last few months thinking about what about the program was most impactful for me personally, and I think in the end where I grew the most was in flexibility. Immediately after finishing my undergraduate degree I spent several years working as a field instructor at an outdoor school, so most of my science outreach and education experience is within that context. The programs I worked for were regimented--I taught the same material to each new group of students, and my relationship to them was hierarchical: I was the teacher in charge, and they were my students who owed me their attention. We had a strict schedule and always had to be on time. This structure is valuable to such a program, in which the instructors welcome 120 new students a week who are wildly outside of their comfort zone trekking around outdoors and sleeping in cabins. However, it did not allow for much ability to cater education around student interest.

Through A Birdsong Program I have learned a great deal about participatory design and justice-oriented teaching. Running the program around these principles requires me to step into a role that I am not accustomed to--I have had to learn to step back from being in charge and at the front of the group, and instead focus on building relationships and learning about what individuals in our group want to do. This means that we can't plan activities much ahead of time as what we do next week may be entirely dependent on what students decide to do this week. Conversation doesn't always stay "on-topic" in terms of being bird- or science-centric, but I've learned that that's okay! While we of course hope that participants in the program learn about birds and science, we hope that first and foremost they are learning to effectively communicate and build relationships with each other.

At the end, I think I can say that we achieved that goal--at least from my perspective. Not every moment of the semester was easy (I can think of a million things I would adjust and modify for the fall) but I think we were successful in building connections and relationships with each other.

I am deeply appreciative for this experience and all the people who made it possible: to Dr. Nora Prior, Karen Bennett, the BOCES aides, and BOCES and Cornell students.

I would also like to thank and acknowledge the sources of funding for this program, which are Research!America (Public Engagement Content Award to Celia McLean), the Cornell Einhorn Center (awarded to Nora Prior), and the National Science Foundation (awarded to Nora Prior).

-Celia McLean