Next to my Celebrate Urban Birds student work-desk at the Lab of Ornithology, team members of the inquiry-based science program called BirdSleuth are always busy developing new curriculum plans in avian education for K-12 students and instructors to learn more about birds and the local environment through citizen science and discovery driven by curiosity.

Photo © Shailee Shah / Lab of Ornithology

Originally called “Classroom BirdWatch,” the program provides training, kits, and other resources to encourage investigation and data collection among youth. Although it started in 2004 under a National Science Foundation grant in the US, about five years ago they  started a project in Costa Rica that met with success, since the country is home to nearly a thousand bird species and students in rural classrooms are in a perfect setting to learn more about the nature around them by contributing to science in the area.

If you have kids in K-12 or are an educator in your community (including homeschools), consider some of the resources available at BirdSleuth to connect children to birds and local wildlife habitat while adding to citizen science data!