Tucson Audubon Society

Youth Birding and Environmental Education: Now that more than half the population of the United States lives in urban areas, many children no longer have direct experience of the natural world and they have limited understanding of the importance of natural processes.

By using birds as a focus, this program augments 8-18 year-old student's formal education by connecting children to their natural world. Activities facilitated by adults but in which youth have a real stake produce a sense they are active “agents” in the world. Adult teachers in our Youth Birding Program facilitate group decisions about field trip destinations, what educational topics interest them, and what projects to take on, but the students guide the course of the program. Monthly meetings will explore bird-related scientific and conservation issues in an interactive format. Internet-based resources will include reading lists, links to bird resource websites, and blogs. Led by adults, the field trips will be instructional and focus on the association of bird species with ecological niches. “Citizen Science” is an important component of the program and students will generate real data about bird populations and input the statistics in eBird. By so doing, they will see how scientists around the world use the data the students themselves generated.

Objectives for Tucson Audubon's Youth Birding Program are to develop, in Tucson 's youth, a sense of wonder about the natural world, a close and meaningful connection with nature through an understanding of birds as a component of a much larger system, and an understanding of the workings and the values of the natural world.

Ultimately, we seek to cultivate, in these young adults, an inherent value of natural processes. We strive to bring about changes in behavior that reflect an ethic of sustainable living practices towards becoming responsible stewards of our natural world. We endeavor to ensure that the decision makers of the future have an understanding and a respect for the world around them.