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Birdwatch Ireland
http://www.birdwatchireland.ie
The conservation charity, dedicated to protecting Ireland’s wild birds and their habitats.
What is the site about?
It provides a huge amount of information about birds in Ireland – how to identify them, where to see them, when and what to feed them and everything else you could possibly want to know.
Why was it chosen as site of the week?
It provides clear identification information for the most common birds in Ireland.
Health and Safety advice is available.
It includes a Kid’s Zone, with activities suitable for schools.
Links available from the site encourage children and teachers to become involved in real scientific research activities, many of which use ICT to report findings.- Spring Alive will be relevant from the end of January, inviting students and teachers to record their first sightings of 4 different birds.
- Greenwave.ie focuses on the arrival of spring in different parts of the country. The results of last year’s survey are now available. Schools who took part last year will be interested in the results, while other schools might like to see what was done with a view to participating this year.
- Bird Atlas 2007-11 is a 4-year long survey of birds in Britain and Ireland. It started on 1/11/2007 and invites people to sign up as volunteers to record 1 hour of observations, in a specific area, at a number of different times during the year.
How can it be used as an educational resource?
The Kid’s Zone includes a range of activities which can be undertaken by children in schools. In Primary schools, the activities suggested fit into the Science and Geography areas of the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education curriculum. Obvious connections exist in the Living things strand and in the Environmental awareness and care strand.
Asking children to watch birds is ideal for developing observation skills. The information recorded provides source material to develop skills of investigating, measuring and analysing information. Graphing the results on bar charts or pie charts allows further subject integration by involving mathematics.
Senior classes will be able to map birds seen at different locations around the school, as well as investigate how wind, temperature and air pressure affect birds.
In the advice section there are several topics, including Bird Flu, which contain interesting information for Biology and Chemistry students in Secondary schools.
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Your Comments:
Lots of good ideas here.
Maureen, Finglas.
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