Fledging Birders with Dave Magpiong
A New Jersey teacher’s lesson plan includes birding.
by Soraya Gutierrez -
Posted: April 1, 2008
A birding tour leader once said to Dave Magpiong, “I used to drag my kids out birding all the time. Now, none of them really care about birds.” Those words elicited a cringe from Magpiong, an elementary school teacher and director of Fledging Birders, a program designed to plant the seed of birding in children.
Sparking a curiosity about birds in the lives of children benefits everyone involved, he said, including the children, the birds and even birders. Magpiong believes that his mission to fledge birders can impact birds significantly through increased social, political and financial support for conservation.
As a parent and teacher, he recognized a need for bird education in schools and communities. “By getting more kids — and by extension their families — familiar and interested with the lives of birds,” he said, “bird conservation will become more meaningful to a much broader audience.”
Magpiong discovered that the best way to catch a child’s interest in birding is to connect the activity to an existing interest in their lives. If a student likes sports, he’ll ask why so many teams are named after birds. Once they look at sports through birding glasses, he said, a connection might be made that hooks them into birds or at least makes them view birds a bit curiously. That’s where it starts.
In his southern New Jersey classroom, bird memorabilia appears all around for his students to explore. The children can flip through field guides and experiment with binoculars.
Magpiong invites students on schoolyard outings before or after school to show them how accessible birds are. “I have had many kids arrive more than an hour early just to look for birds,” he said.
“Adults should be excited about kids birding, because it means the kids are spending their valuable time with a constructive recreational outlet that can make a difference in their lives,” Magpiong said. “Simply put, birding for kids is the antithesis to the techno-induced epidemic of youthful inactivity.”
The goal of the Fledging Birders program is to foster an appreciation for birds at the individual’s own pace. It’s highly important to not force the activity upon them, he said.
“Birding,” Magpiong said, “gives them a connection with nature that kids are sorely deprived of today. The physical benefits of getting outside and walking instead of sitting around on MySpace and text messaging all day are important.”
Having discovered the pleasures of birding as an adult, Magpiong wanted to share the rewards of watching wildlife with his children as well as his students. The benefits of birding for children became evident almost immediately, he said.
Students of various learning levels exhibited more energy, excitement and increased attention to classroom activities. The results, he said, are dramatic.
For example, one of his former students was known to give teachers a difficult time. He was disruptive, disrespectful and argumentative with teachers and other students. When Magpiong distributed birding permission slips to his class, he was concerned that the boy wanted to join the field trips. To his delight, the boy was in awe of the birds.
“Despite his normally tough exterior,” he said, “it was not unusual to hear him say things like, ‘This Baltimore Oriole is amazing’ or ‘That Scarlet Tanager is beautiful’ with true wonder in his delivery.” The student and teacher continue to stay in touch years later.
Fostering an appreciation for nature, said Fred Virrazzi, president of National Biodiversity Parks, a nonprofit that launched Fledging Birders in 2006, teaches children about more than birds. Exposing children to nature and birds at a young age, Virrazzi said, opens their eyes to an array of learning opportunities, from migration and habitat to food and weather patterns.
“It’s a conduit to other disciplines,” he said of birdwatching. “If an adult shows excitement in birds, children pick up on that.”
What makes Fledging Birders successful, Virrazzi said, is that students are able to learn and interact in a manner that doesn’t turn into just another classroom task. “Children go out and see birds, different species and many parts of nature,” he said. “Dave brings his own twists and ideas.”
One concept that has gained traction, known as the National Schoolyard Birding Challenge (www.fledgingbirders.org/challenge.html), is a monthly birding contest targeted at giving teachers incentive to get their students outside and looking for birds around their schools. Students work together to observe, identify and record bird species they discover.
The motivation to join a winning team: a chance to win bird-related prizes. The most rewarding of them, however, is the act of birding itself, Magpiong said, and the benefits that children gain when they are introduced to the hobby.
“If more people, especially kids, become endeared with birding,” he said, “more of the public will become interested in bird and conservation issues.”