Students and teachers, along with staff from Atlanta Audubon and Convivial Landscapes, worked together recently to install a bird-friendly native plant garden at Heritage Academy in south Atlanta as part of a year-long program to prepare students to become better stewards of our shared environment.
To date, Atlanta Audubon has worked with seven schools through the Connecting Students with STEM through Birds Program, including Boyd Elementary, Cleveland Academy, Continental Colony Elementary, Emma Hutchinson Elementary, Heritage Academy, Main Street Academy, and Usher-Collier Elementary. In addition, Fickett Elementary has also been selected for the 2019-20 school year, and installation of their garden is scheduled for later this year.
With funding through the Morgens West Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and Atlanta Audubon members, Connecting Students with STEM through Birds is a comprehensive elementary school program for federally designated Title I schools in the metro area. Each school receives a bird-friendly outdoor learning area featuring native plants that allows teachers to extend learning outside of the traditional classroom. Atlanta Audubon partners with Convivial Landscapes, LLC, an ecological landscaping company, to select plants and to design and install the garden on school grounds with the help of students and teachers.
Additionally, each school receives a classroom set of binoculars, bird- and nature-themed books for the school library, student programming by Atlanta Audubon, and professional development for teachers. Throughout the school year, Atlanta Audubon staff will visit the school to conduct bird-banding demonstrations and other programs to help teach and engage the students with birds and the environment.
Information: www.atlantaaudubon.org
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