Purpose
Students will investigate, build, and test a birdhouse that supports birds in the school or neighborhood. Guided by the question, “How can we build and test a birdhouse that supports birds in our school or neighborhood?” teams will establish criteria, compare design solutions, analyze test results, and revise for better performance. Teams will complete a performance task that justifies their final design with testing evidence and identifies a next improvement. A final reflection circle will highlight how students’ thinking changed, how each person contributed, and what they would improve next time.
Learning goals
Students will apply ecosystem science and the engineering design cycle to build and test a birdhouse that supports local birds. Teams will establish shared criteria and constraints, collect and analyze test data, compare competing designs, and revise their birdhouse for improved performance. Students will justify their final design with evidence, communicate one next-version improvement, and explain how it may help maintain local biodiversity and ecosystem services. In a final reflection circle, students will describe how their thinking changed, how they contributed to group decisions, and what they would improve next time.
Products
Teams will create a criteria-and-constraints chart, compare competing birdhouse designs, and produce a labeled design sketch. They will build and test a birdhouse intended to support local birds, collect and analyze performance data, and document evidence-based revisions. Each team will present its final birdhouse and justify the design using test evidence, including one improvement for a future version. Students will also complete a final reflection-circle statement describing how their thinking changed, how they contributed, and what they would improve next time.
Launch
Begin with a short schoolyard habitat walk to record signs of birds, available resources, and possible threats without disturbing wildlife. Teams inspect two contrasting birdhouse models or photos, predict which design better supports local birds, and jointly develop criteria and constraints for success. Introduce the challenge: “How can we build and test a birdhouse that supports birds in our school or neighborhood?” Explain that teams will build, test, collect and analyze results, revise their designs, justify final choices with evidence, propose a next improvement, and close with a reflection circle about changed thinking and individual contributions.
Exhibition
Host a Birdhouse Design Expo for classmates, families, and local bird or conservation partners focused on the question, “How can we build and test a birdhouse that supports birds in our school or neighborhood?” Teams exhibit their birdhouses alongside design criteria, test results, comparisons of competing choices, and revisions made to improve performance and support local biodiversity. During a brief presentation, each team justifies its final design with testing evidence and identifies one improvement for a future version, then responds to audience questions and feedback. Close with a reflection circle in which each student shares how their thinking changed, how they contributed to the group, and what they would improve next time.
