How do we know if the wind turbine at our school is impacting birds? Here, small groups work together and conduct field work in order to determine the impact of a human-made structure on birds. The groups also determine their searcher error and the scavenger rate for their location in order to determine accurate data counts. This is lesson 15 of a 19-part series.

Concepts

wind turbines, birds, human impact on the environment

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Have the class create another procedure that would produce similar results
• Conduct transects on different days with different groups

Classroom Considerations

• Multiple large areas will be needed that will be not disturbed by humans during the lesson
• A wind turbine or other structure that birds potentially would fly into on school grounds is needed

Pros

• Provides the same experience that scientists use to conduct field work

Cons

• Database link to upload the school information does not work
• The process of doing transects is time consuming