Exposition Park
Virtual Birding Field Trip




Overview/Introduction:

Students learn from a variety of sources, including their experiences in visiting places. Classroom teachers know the value of taking their students on field trips, which provide knowledge and experiences they could not offer them using classroom resources only. However, the reality of many school situations is that there often aren't the financial resources available to take students on field trips. Some destinations are prohibitive by virtue of their distance from the school site.

The Internet has become a valuable resource for teachers and students, albeit a secondary resource, which offers opportunities to visit destinations online through Virtual Birding Field Trips. The following activity uses a site in south central Los Angeles, Exposition Park, as a destination for a Virtual Birding Field Trip. Students will access information about the park and the bird life found there and answer questions along the way. This activity can be followed by a bird observation activity (See Backyard Birds.). The Virtual Field trip can then be used as a model for students to create their own virtual field trip, perhaps of their school campus or their neighborhoods.

Purpose or Objective:

  1. To access information online

  2. To observe and make determinations based on observations.

  3. To hypothesize about observations of bird behavior

  4. To consider the issue of human intervention in a natural environment

  5. To use the Virtual Birding Field Trip as a means of gaining access to sites that are out of reach.

Time Required: About 30 minutes for basic field trip, but time can vary depending on usage.

Materials, Tools, and Resources Needed: Computer, access to Virtual Birding Field Trip; bird guides (optional);

Optional materials: digital cameras; Kid Pix, PowerPoint, or HyperStudio or other electronic presentation application; scanner.

Teacher Preparation: The teacher should preview the virtual field trip and be prepared to guide students in seeking answers to the questions posed in the field trip.

Prerequisite Student Knowledge:

Before students take the Virtual Birding Field Trip, they should have experience with observing birds and know some commonly seen species. It would be helpful if they were familiar with bird food chains, foraging habits, and had some knowledge of bird identification techniques.

Procedure:

Have students take the Virtual Birding Field Trip either individually or in pairs. Make the bird guides available to them, if possible. Students may write answers to the questions in journals or on a separate sheet of paper for use in a class discussion of field trip.

Assessment:

Students can create a virtual field trip of their neighborhood or of the school campus as a culminating activity after making bird observations (See Backyard Birds). They can present their virtual field trip to their classmates in a "low tech" fashion with captioned photos on a display board.

If there are digital cameras or a scanner available, they can create their virtual field trip and put it into an electronic presentation or on a school web page. They could scan a map of the school campus to use as a "site map".

Students could create a story board using "Post-its" or index cards to plan their virtual field trip and presentation.

In assessing their products, look for the following elements for a rubric score of "4".

  1. A clear "story line" in the virtual field trip

  2. Accurate location of birds; type of birds; their characteristics and behavior

  3. Questions posed to the viewer about the pictures

  4. Picture captions that give the viewer a clear understanding of the purpose of the scene in the picture

Grade Level: Middle Grades

Content Standards

Grade 3- LS 3c,d

3. Adaptations in physical structure or behavior may improve an organism's chance for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

c. living things cause changes in the environment where they live; some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are beneficial

d. when the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and other die or move to new locations.

Grade 4- LS3c; IE6a, c

3. Living things depend on one another and their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know

c. many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, while animals depend on plants for food and shelter.

6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content of the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. differentiate observation from inference (interpretation), and know that scientists' explanations come partly from what they observe and partly from how they interpret their observations.
a. formulate predictions and justify predictions based on cause and effect relationships.

Technology Standards

5. Technology research tools

• Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.


The Integrating Technology into Science Instruction webpages project is partially funded by grants from The Boeing Company and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Integrating Technology into Instruction is a project of Target Science (target@laep.org) and is displayed on the Los Angeles Educational Partnership Learning Exchange. Target Science is an initiative of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership.
Updated May 2000