Teaching Science Across the Curriculum

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(Photo © Hilton Pond Center) "Discovery Learning" among faculty and staff from Harold C. Johnson Middle School, York SC

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Operation
RubyThroat:
Focus on Hummingbirds for Cross-disciplinary Learning

Operation RubyThroat is a cross-disciplinary international project in which students, teachers, and others collaborate to study behavior and distribution of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). Participants live in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama)--countries in which this bird regularly occurs.

Because Ruby-throated Hummingbirds typically tolerate people and are even drawn to flower gardens and hummingbird feeders we provide, they are an ideal subject for natural history observation and research by students and adults of all ages. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds breed in eastern and central North America and southern Canada; most spend winter months (September to March) in Mexico and Central America as far south as the Panama Canal. Few details are known about their migration or their behavior in the tropics during winter. However, habitat destruction along and at both ends of the migration path undoubtedly poses danger.

In Operation RubyThroat, participants observe the Ruby-throated Hummingbird in their home countries and share information with peers across North and Central America. Data they collect about hummingbird behavior and distribution are submitted to a central clearing house, analyzed, and then disseminated through the Operation RubyThroat website and print publications. Participants learn not only about natural history of hummingbirds but reinforce skills in math, writing, geography, foreign language, and other disciplines AND gain deeper understanding of the need for environmental cooperation among people of the Americas.

During his workshop about Operation RubyThroat, Bill Hilton Jr. of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History details how you and your students can become participants in this exciting and innovative project.

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Hummingbirds and The GLOBE Program

The GLOBE Program, a collaborative education effort among NASA, NSF, NOAA, other federal agencies--plus universities and other non-profit organizations-- encourages students around the world to collect data about natural happenings and submit their observations to an on-line database. Historically, areas of interest have been atmosphere, climate, hydrology, soils, and phenology, but in 2002 "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummigbird Project" became the first GLOBE-related activity to involve animal behavior. As principal investigator for Operation RubyThroat, Bill Hilton Jr. of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History designed a set of hummingbird protocols that allow students to study the birds' behavioral ecology, to submit their data through GLOBE, and to investigate rel-time correlations between hummingbirds and abiotic factors.

In this three-hour certification workshop, Hilton provides extensive information about hummingbirds and trains teachers in the hummingbird protocols. Once certified, teachers receive a site ID code for their school that allows their students to submit hummingbird data directly to GLOBE. Previous GLOBE training is not required.

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