Diana Miculescu

EDSC 7550
3 February 2019
NOS Lesson – Where The Birds Live
In this article, there are two lessons. I will focus on Lesson 1: What Lives Where and Why? This
lesson engages students in exploring web-based maps to explore bird habitats and migration patterns
(MaKinster, Trautmann, Burch & Watkins, 2015). The web-based map incorporates map layers which
displays environmental and geographic data. This data includes land use, elevation, annual minimum
temperature, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Through these map layers students can explore the
environmental factors necessary for a specific bird species. Students then compare birds found
everywhere in the state versus birds defined to a specific area. The lesson uses a website from The
Cornell Lab of Ornithology “All About Birds” where students can further investigate specific birds.
Students use the website to collect information such as bird adaptation and requirements in the habitat.
Students then present their work to the class, and students use empirical evidence to describe relationships
between a species’ adaptations and environmental factors necessary in their habitat.
In this lesson, students are engaged in three-dimensional learning. They are engaged in science
and engineering practices of using mathematics and computational thinking and constructing
explanations. Disciplinary core ideas of ecosystem dynamics, functioning and stability and crosscutting
concept of cause and effect are used as students use collected data from the web-based map and the “All
About Birds” website to explain where the bird they selected nests and why it nests there.
The article explicitly states connections to nature of science. Nature of Science addressed in this
lesson is “science knowledge is based on empirical evidence, science includes the process of coordinating
patterns of evidence with current theory, and science arguments are strengthened by multiple lines of
evidence supporting a single explanation” (MaKinster, et al., 2015).
The lesson, as it is written, does explicitly address nature of science, but other connections could
be made. For example, “scientific knowledge is open to revision” (Settlage, Southerland, Smetan &
Lottero-Perdue, 2018). Over time, data in the map layers such as land use, elevation, annual minimum
temperature, rivers, lakes, and wetlands may change. This could change the population of birds within a
certain area if environmental requirements for a species decreases or increases. Another aspect of nature
of “science is that it is increasingly performed by a variety of people, each whom brings a different
background knowledge and biases to the work” (Settlage, et al., 2018). The data included in the web-
based map was collected by 1,200 volunteers over five years. Not much else is given in the article
regarding this information, but it could be used to display the diversity of those involved in science. It’s
not all white males in lab coats sitting in a laboratory, but its volunteers collecting data out in the
environment. Creativity of science can also be addressed as each student chooses or is initially interesting
in one map layer over others (Settlage, et al., 2018). Students chooses the initial map layer, which will in
turn influence the perspective in which they view each environment and/or bird species. In addition, if
students explore map layers individually, they may look at map layers in different orders, which might
change the way in which they think about certain aspects of the environment. This does not mean that
students will come to different conclusions, but the line of thinking while exploring and discovering data
will be different for each individual student.
 References
MaKinster, J., Trautmann, N., Burch, C., & Watkins, M. (2015). Where the birds live. The Science
Teacher, 82(9), 42-49. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.gsu.edu/docview/1735970846?accountid=11226
Settlage, J., Southerland, S. A., Smetan, L., & Lottero-Perdue, P. (2018). Teaching science to every child:
Using culture as a starting point. 3rd Ed. New York, Routledge.