Raptors Are Really Fun to Learn About

While you may have heard the term ‘raptor’, do you know what kind of animal it is? Simply, a bird of prey. Some types of raptors include vultures, eagles, hawks, and falcons. The District recently began an education program to teach elementary students about the raptors of Pennsylvania.

Over the summer, two staff members attended an educational workshop at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center to learn how to teach students about the birds. Various different activities were presented at the workshop, and the staff members gained valuable knowledge. Following the workshop, the staff members took their new found knowledge back to Cambria County and began to put together an education program.

The education program they put together was one of great success. They first debuted the program two weeks ago for a group of 5th graders. The program consisted of a ‘Guess Who’ type of game where descriptions of different raptors was read, and the students put together various bird parts (tail, talons, wings, etc.) to build the bird being described. Once they built the bird, they had to figure out which bird those particular parts belonged to. Following that activity, the students were able to put some of their creativity to the test, and were given the opportunity to ‘build their own bird’. This activity allowed them to pick different types of wings, tails, and other bird adaptions to build their bird, and then they were asked to describe what the bird was able to do with such parts. Students were asked and they overwhelmingly agreed they loved the activity.

After the initial part of the program, students were taught a bit about the now US-banned pesticide DDT and the effects raptors experienced due to the pesticide usage. They then played a game similar to tag, where some students were ‘hawks’, some were ‘shrews’, and others were ‘grasshoppers’. All players were on the hunt for food, some of which was tainted with DDT without them knowing which foods were polluted. Players tagged each other and gained the ‘food’ from the tagged person. At the end of the game food was counted and based on the number of DDT tainted foods, determined if the player felt the effects of DDT or not. The game was designed to demonstrate the food chain and bioaccumulation in a fun hands on way.

This new raptor program has proven to be both fun and educational. It will continue to be part of some of our education programs going forward.