University of Puget Sound
www.pugetsound.edu/slatermuseum.xml
Nature in the Classroom:
Incorporating Museum Specimens into Public School Curricula
Peter Wimberger, Gary Shugart, Kathryn True
Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma WA
Google “Nature in the Classroom Slater Museum”
or
Contact Peter Wimberger (253.879.2784, pwimberget@pugetsound.edu) to reserve kits
GOALS:
Provide meaningful natural history experience for grades 4 - 5
Provide specimens that students can handle
CONSTRAINTS:
Curricula self-contained (no additional volunteers needed)
Teachers could implement without extensive training
Fulfill state and national science standards
Few teachers have the resources, knowledge or time to teach K-12 students natural history. Working with district teachers
and administrators we put together curricula designed to hone elementary students’ observational skills and address
Washington state science learning requirements. Curricula were designed to bring natural history into classrooms and
provide “kid-friendly” specimens for hands-on experiences. Teachers call the kits a “field trip in a box”.
Our initial implementation provides three in-class experiences.
“Wild Things” students carefully observe and journal various natural history artifacts that they might find on a hike.
“BirDiversity” includes 30 local bird species and students draw, compare and write about structure and function.
“Tooth Sleuth” students use a dichotomous key to identify skulls of local mammals and make inferences about their diets
based on teeth.
Puget Sound Seabird Diversity (43 species) [5 Orders]
ducks & a goose [Anseriformes]
geese (1)
dabbling ducks (2)
diving ducks (pochards) (3)
harlequin duck & long-tailed duck (2)
scoters (3)
Bucephala (large-headed) ducks (3)
mergansers (3)
loons (3) [Gaviiformes]
grebes (5) [Podicepediformes]
cormorants (3) [Pelecaniformes]
gulls, terns, alcids, “shorebird” (8,2,4,1) [Charadriiformes]
Other birds found nearshore (adds 4 Orders and ~30 species)
Canada Goose (resident)
ducks, up to 10 species (primarily fresh water)
Great Blue Heron (resident)
Bald Eagle (resident), Osprey
Killdeer (resident) & 10+ shorebird species in migration
Belted Kingfisher
American Crow (resident)
For additional information on birds in this presentation with notes on seasonality and
status, see Dennis Paulson’s annotated list of Birds of Washington, google Birds of
Washington Slater Museum or
(http://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/birds/birds-of-washington/
Seasonality in Puget Sound Seabirds
Summer
Puget Sound
Birds
Summer
vs
Winter
Mallard
Glaucous-winged Gulls (& hybrids)
Pigeon Guillemots
Summer 2011 (California gulls, Caspian Terns, DC Cormorants)
Winter & Migration
40 species migrate through or stay the winter
Migration
Fall - July-Sept
Spring - April-May
Winter birds
Arrive - mid-July, main influx in Oct
Leave – April-May
Where are birds when not in Puget Sound?
Common Goldeneye
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Common Loon
Range maps from Birds of North America online
Surf Scoter
Red-necked Grebe
Exploring and Thinking about
Biological Diversity
How do birds use their beaks and feet to obtain food?
What and where do they eat?
Inquiry starts with examination the form of beaks and feet.
Beak functions as the bird’s hand for acquiring and manipulating food and
for preening (feather care)
Feet function for locomotion, landing and perching
(and food acquisition in predators)
Using evidence gathered from observation of specimens
can students infer function?
Comment: Extreme example , gulls don’t stand on their food items
Horned Grebe with sculpin stuck in mouth. Birds are propel swallowers, they use
momentum of a food object to get it down. Some birds, especially cormorants and
pelicans, have pliable mandibles that allow swallowing of large objects. Also used to for
source of specimens question.
Source of Specimens
Salvage from Wildlife Center of the North Coast,
4 Dec 2010, 4 months accumulation
Bird is skinned
through an
incision in the
abdomen.
Showing tightly
wound cotton
body for a varied
thrush to left.
Finished specimen,
ready for drying to right
Hands-on Activity (25 minutes)
(adapted from Nature in the Classroom “Birdiversity”)
• In groups of 3 (or 4) take a box of 3 (or 4) specimens. They are
grouped by letters and numbered
• Examine the beak, feet and legs, noting and drawing the structure of
each bird in your group.
• Consider how the beak and feet could be used? Some examples:
–
–
–
–
Grazing, digging for clams, probing, grabbing fish or invertebrates?
Bill type: Pointed, hooked, thin vs heavy, short vs long
Gape (mouth size) – what could they swallow and how processed?
Feet: webbed, length of toes, relative size of web, location of legs the body, are
tarsi (exposed legs) flattened (diving planes in divers)
– From what you can see of the folded wing, is the bird a strong flyer?
• Summary & species highlights (20 minutes).
Brant (D3) (a goose)
• non-divers
• grazer – marine shoreline
vegetation
• “duck” foot & triangular
bill
G. Shugart
Surface ducks (salt & fresh water)
•
•
•
•
Mallard (E3)
typical duck foot and bill
surface feeder, can tip up
graze from bottom, serrations edge of bill
shallows, fresh water outflows
American Wigeon (G2)
G. Shugart
Diving & Sea Ducks
• Diving Ducks
• Scoters
• Bucephala
• Mergansers
Greater Scaup female (B4)
•Stout bill with nail used to dig & root around
on bottom for marine animals
• large webbed feet to hover at bottom
Scoters
Surf Scoter female (G3)
G. Shugart
•Large webbed feet & stout bill
•Dive and dig & root around on bottom
for mollusks (mussels, clams, barnacles)
•Pick mussels & barnacles from pilings
G. Shugart
White-winged Scoter male (C1)
•
•
large webbed feet, stout bill for digging up clams
expandable mandible (bill) allows swallowing whole clams
photo by Mike Yip
Bucephala
Common Goldeneye male (E2)
•large webbed feet
•stout bill for digging, rooting around, rock flipping
•eats small marine animals (fish, crustaceans, snails, small mollusks)
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Bufflehead female (A1)
•large webbed feet
•petite bill for poking, prying, rooting around
•also eats small animals (salt & fresh water during winter)
Red-breasted Merganser male (B1)
Megansers (3 species)
•sawbills – “toothed” thin bills
•large webbed feet at rear
•grab fish that are chased
down anywhere in the water
column, but usually in shallows
or upwelling
Red-breasted Merganser female (B3)
Loons (3 species)
•Large webbed feet, placed at rear
•Bill sharp & pointed, smooth edges
•Chase down fish & probe for crustaceans
Common Loon (H1)
Pacific Loon (C2) breeding plumage
Pacific Loon (C2) winter plumage
Photo by Mike Yipp
Red-necked Grebe
Grebes (5 species)
Red-necked Grebe (C3)
•heavy loon-like bill
•chases and captures fish & probes for
crabs, shrimp on bottom
•lobed toes – lift rather than drag
based propulsion
•no tail
Summer (breeding) plumage
Winter plumage
Western Grebe (F3)
•lobed toes
•flattened tarsi – diving
planes
•long neck, thin pointed
bill
•small gape limits food
size
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
Grebes and Loons
•Leg placement to rear, ankles are at tail
•No external drumsticks
•Flattened exposed leg (tarsi)
•Webbed (loon) vs lobed (grebe) foot
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
Cormorants (3 species)
G. Shugart
Cormorants in general
•totipalmate foot (pelican) – all 4 toes
webbed
•heavy hooked bill with small pouch
•Hook probably for holding &
manipulating larger fish than striaght
pointed bill would allow.
•only in water for foraging, roost at
other times
•dive & pursue fish anywhere in water
column
•expandable mandible allows
swallowing of large fish
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
Pleased to eat you, 14” pike swallowed in 10 seconds
Double-crested Cormorant (F2)
•totipalmate foot (pelican) – all 4 toes webbed
•heavy hooked bill, pouch, expandable mandible allows for
large fish
•dive and pursue fish
•few summer, breed along coasts and inland lakes in WA
•characteristic spread wing when roosting
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
Brandt’s Cormorant (D3)
•shorter tail than double-crested, used as a brace for roosting & nesting on
ledges
•nests from Columbia River Estuary to the south
•reverse migration spending winter in Puget Sound
DC
Pelagic
Brandt’s
Pelagic
Glaucous-winged Gull adult (D1)
•webbed foot
•heavy hooked bill
•nest throughout Puget Sound (resident)
•generalist forager
Immature
(D2)
Caspian Tern (E1)
•large pointed bill, vermillion in life
•partially webbed foot, rarely swims or rests on water
•plunge diver from 5-30 feet for fish
•summering dispersal after destruction of 7,000 pair tern reserve in the
Columbia River estuary by Bald Eagles
Alcids (puffin family)
•webbed foot
•dive and pursue fish, but use wings to fly underwater
Pigeon Guillemot (A2)
•Resident nester cliffs, ferry dock pilings
Common Murre (B2)
•Coastal nester, now rare in south Puget Sound
in winter
Immature plumage
D. Paulson
Adult breeding (summer) plumage
D. Paulson
D. Paulson
Osprey (F1)
• Piercing claws &
sandpaper feet
• Aerial search, then dive
feet first to catch fish
• Hooked bill for tearing
Belted Kingfisher (A3)
•Long heavy bill for piercing grabbing
fish, also amphibians & crustaceans
•Fused toes for perching??
•Perches and waits for visual cue to
prey, then flies out, hovers, and dives
Great Blue Heron (H3)
•Long piercing & grabbing bill will eat anything it can catch
•Long toes – mud shoes
•Long legs for wading
•Middle claw with comb
Photo by Pete Murray
American Crow (G1)
• Generalist
• Foot for walking,
perching
• Feathered nostrils
Summary
Function from form?
Ultimately, in the attempt students come to appreciate the
diversity of form fostering inquiry into: How, where, & what do
the birds eat.
The result is greater awareness of natural world.
Status
•BOWER, J.L. 2009. Changes in marine bird abundance in the Salish Sea: 1975 to
2007. Marine Ornithology 37: 9–17 provides the best overview
•Three sampling efforts over the last 30 years using different methods, but some
conclusions using conservative comparisons
Declines
•Scaup, Loons,except for Common, Western Grebe, Rhinoceros Auklet, Common
Murre
Causes
•foraging base lost due to habitat destruction in Puget Sound
•disturbance in roosting areas by humans in Puget Sound
•resurgence in Bald Eagle in Puget Sound
•loss of breeding grounds to drying & overhunting
•toxins & pollution in Puget Sound?? – mechanism
Increases
•American Wigeon, Double-crested Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Canada Geese
Percent change in Salish Sea Seabirds
from Bower (2009) Marine Ornithology 37: 9-17
CBC (1976–1985) vs (1998–2007)
MESA (1978-1980) vs WWU (2003-2005)
Marbled Murrelet
Ancient Murrelet
Pigeon Guillemot
Common Murre
Glaucous-winged Gull
Mew Gull
Bonaparte’s Gull
Bald Eagle
Ruddy Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Merganser
Bufflehead Bucephala
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Common Goldeneye
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Surf Scoter
All scaup
Canvasback
Green-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Brandt’s Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Western Grebe
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Common Loon
Pacific Loon
Red-throated Loon
All birds
-100.00
-50.00
0.00
50.00
Percent change
100.00
150.00
200.00