Birds as Teachers: Inclusive Education for Bird Conservation Through Community, Culture, and Nature

Birds have a novel capability to spark curiosity and encourage studying, particularly amongst kids. In Colombia, Audubon has harnessed that potential to assist younger folks uncover birds, perceive their significance, and turn out to be stewards of the locations they name house.

In 2021, Catalina Casas, Area Conservation Supervisor for Audubon in Colombia, group schooling advisor Ligia García, and a gaggle of devoted lecturers developed a pilot curriculum for colleges in Colombia’s Central Andes and Southwestern area. The purpose was easy however bold: increase consciousness about migratory birds and encourage communities to guard the habitats they rely upon.

Aligned with Colombian Ministry of Training requirements, the Birds to Discover and Conserve curriculum integrates chook conservation into science, social research, arithmetic, language arts, and citizenship schooling. Designed for elementary and center faculty college students, it combines classroom studying with outside experiences that join kids with their native environments.

This system focuses on colleges in and round precedence conservation areas, lots of which serve communities experiencing poverty, social inequality, and the impacts of rural battle. Lecturers are on the coronary heart of the initiative. They helped co-design and take a look at the supplies, together with educating guides and an illustrated scholar workbook full of classroom and area actions for college kids, households, and group members.

By means of a train-the-trainer strategy, educators study chook identification, ecology, and conservation and achieve the instruments to steer actions independently. College students study native and migratory birds, take part in group science, and take sensible conservation motion—from creating bird-friendly gardens to documenting native information and traditions.

Strengthening the Program in 2026

The pilot started in 20 rural colleges and reached almost 700 college students. Since then, collaborating lecturers have continued utilizing and adapting the curriculum of their school rooms. In 2026, Audubon renewed its engagement by way of a undertaking supporting 5 further colleges:

• La Selva Academic Establishment – Ginebra, Valle del Cauca
• Santa Elena Academic Establishment – Santa Elena, Valle del Cauca
• Providencia Academic Establishment – El Cerrito, Valle del Cauca
• La Inmaculada Academic Establishment – San Antonio del Chamí, Mistrató, Risaralda
• José A. Galán Academic Establishment – Manizales, Caldas

The undertaking expanded trainer help, strengthened academic sources, and created extra alternatives for hands-on studying. It additionally opened a brand new dimension of studying: connecting college students in Colombia with friends in the US by way of their shared curiosity in migratory birds. 

Migratory Birds Join College students Throughout Borders

5 digital alternate classes introduced collectively Colombian college students and college students from 4 U.S. colleges:

• North Canaan Elementary Faculty, Connecticut – fifth Grade STEAM Class
• Columbus Spanish Immersion Academy, Ohio
• World Language Center Faculty, Ohio
• Columbus Worldwide Excessive Faculty, Ohio

College students launched their colleges, communities, and cultures earlier than turning their consideration to migratory birds. They researched and introduced chook species, exploring their traits, migration routes, habitats, and ecological significance.

The undertaking staff created a studying information to assist college students conduct their analysis and put together their shows. Every group ended by answering a easy query: Why is our college a welcoming place for birds?

For a lot of college students, the exchanges supplied a brand new technique to see migration—not merely because the motion of birds, however as a connection between nations, ecosystems, and cultures. They found {that a} chook touring hundreds of miles can join communities which may in any other case really feel worlds aside.

From Curiosity to Conservation Motion

The undertaking is designed to maneuver college students from consciousness to engagement and, in the end, to conservation motion. Every stage aligns with Audubon’s Flight Plan milestones and consists of measurable indicators to trace progress over time.

Studying extends past the classroom. College students and communities have created bird-friendly gardens, organized bird-themed festivals, and documented conventional ecological information, together with native chook names, tales, and cultural traditions.

These actions do greater than construct information about birds. They strengthen connections amongst college students, lecturers, households, and group leaders whereas fostering a shared sense of accountability for the pure world.

Within the quick time period, lecturers have strengthened their capability to ship bird-focused environmental schooling, whereas college students have expanded their information of native and migratory species and developed deeper connections with nature.

The longer-term purpose is to construct a long-lasting tradition of environmental stewardship. By equipping lecturers with the abilities and sources to proceed utilizing the curriculum independently, this system can prolong properly past the lifetime of a person undertaking. College students, in flip, are inspired to turn out to be conservation advocates of their colleges, households, and communities.

And the connections created by way of migratory birds attain even farther. By bringing younger folks collectively throughout Colombia and the US, this system reinforces a robust lesson: birds don’t acknowledge borders, and neither ought to our dedication to defending them.

A Neighborhood of Lecturers, College students, and Companions

This work wouldn’t be potential with out the dedication of the lecturers, college students, and companions who’ve helped carry it to life.

Particular because of Kelly Orozco, Consulting Biologist; and to the lecturers in Colombia: María Fernanda Beltrán (La Selva), Sussy Dobrisqui (Santa Elena), María Camila Idárraga and Valeria Rubio (Providencia), Henry Rincón (La Inmaculada), and María Gilma Cortés Castañeda and Claudia Cortés Castañeda (J.A. Galán).

We additionally thank our U.S. companions and educators: Denise Sorrell, North Canaan Elementary Faculty; Wendy Miller, Training Program Supervisor and Summer season Camp Director at Sharon Audubon Heart, Connecticut; Patricia Vázquez and Janie Serna, Columbus Spanish Immersion Academy; Lesly Calhoun, World Language Center Faculty; Katherine Kimnach, Columbus Worldwide Excessive Faculty; and Anne Scott, Neighborhood Engagement Coordinator at Grange Insurance coverage Audubon Heart in Columbus, Ohio.

Their dedication and enthusiasm have helped create significant studying experiences and construct connections by way of birds, biodiversity, and environmental schooling.

A Trainer’s Perspective
 

“My title is María Gilma Cortés Castañeda, and I’m a trainer at José A. Galán Faculty. In 2022, I joined the trainer coaching program led by Audubon in partnership with VivoCuenca, the place we discovered methods to use the Birds to Uncover and Preserve curriculum.

The expertise gave us instruments to combine chook conservation throughout totally different topics and strengthened our dedication to environmental schooling. The supplies and coaching have been invaluable in serving to us develop participating actions inside and outdoors the classroom, together with video games, murals, illustrated chook albums, chook feeders and water stations, and birdwatching area journeys.

Probably the most rewarding half has been seeing how our college students have embraced the undertaking and now perceive the vital position birds play in wholesome ecosystems. By means of faculty initiatives reminiscent of Dwelling Classroom and Creativeness Discussion board, we’ve got inspired their curiosity about nature whereas involving households within the studying course of.

The continued help from Audubon and VivoCuenca, together with the chance to take part within the Chook Tourism Congress, has made this expertise much more significant and strengthened my dedication to inspiring future generations to take care of birds and the pure world.”

When kids study from birds, they study rather more than methods to establish a species. They study that nature connects us—and that defending it’s one thing we are able to all participate in.