Title
What Factors Contribute In Attracting Birds To Feeders?

Grade Level
10-12

Protocol
Birds

Abstract
This lesson plan will allow students to develop their own research questions dealing with specific variables provided by the instructor. Using two kinds of birdseed, two distinct monitoring sites the students will conduct bird counts and analyze possible effects such as abundance or diversity. Instructor responsibility will be mainly focusing students upon one variable. This will allow them to: originating a hypothesis; collect, analyze and compare data; construct the appropriate graph; develop the ability to interpret graph and statistical data; draw a confident conclusion. Also included will be the skills to: describe the observation area, write a lab report, create a research poster to accurately report findings and, finally, create a baseline map of observation areas. As an option, students may also collect and identify plan species, measure tree height, canopy height, and diameter of trees in observation radius.

Author
Melissa Allen, Skyline High School

AZ Standards

• W-P4. Craft a cohesive research document that develops a logical argument or thesis; contains comprehensive, supporting information from a variety of credible and cited resources; and conforms to a style manual
• 1SC-P. Identify and refine a researchable question, conduct the experiment, collect and analyze data, share and discuss findings
• 4SC-P6. Describe and explain how the environment can affect the number of species and diversity of species in an environment
• 2M-P1. Construct and draw inferences including measures of central tendency, from charts, tables, graphs, and data plots that summarize data from real-world situations

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