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  • Our STEM projects are designed so that participants get it wrong before they get it right. You will observe your students struggling as they attempt to create their own STEM projects. This process is an empowering experience, building perseverance, frustration tolerance and growing overall confidence! With your support, students will step out of their comfort zones to think, build and problem-solve for themselves.
  • Productive Struggle Opportunities:
    - Hole punch
    - Threading string
    - Tying a secure knot

In this Rosie Labs guide you will find:

  • Productive struggle opportunities for students during their project build,
  • Lesson objectives and concept overview,
  • Optional STEM topic video to share with participants,
  • Step-by-step instructions and video of the Rosie Riveters’ Bird Feeders project,
  • Optional STEM activities to further explore the objectives and concepts used in the project build.

Objective

Students will be introduced to the concept of habitats by exploring the survival needs of birds.

Concept Overview and Experiment Inspiration

A habitat is a place where an animal lives. A successful animal habitat provides four things: food, water, shelter both from weather and a place to raise young, and protection from predators. Biomes are regions of the world that have similar weather, food sources and plants and are home to different animals. There are five major biomes that exist around the Earth; aquatic, grassland, forest, desert and tundra. Animals in these different biomes have adapted, or changed their behavior or needs, to these various habitats so they can survive. They are able to find the right shelter and food sources so they can keep having babies and live happily in the wild!

Humans and animals have been interacting with each other in the natural environment for a long time. Sadly, sometimes humans have destroyed habitats for animals by building or farming. Scientists and engineers are now learning ways to interact with our Earth so that we are not disrupting animal habitats too much. We always have to be respectful of an animal’s habitat. Not only do we need to keep animal habitats intact, but the majority of wild animals need to be able to survive on their own and not become dependent on humans to feed or shelter them.

However, one animal that has adapted very well to human interaction are birds! Birds are fascinating because they have adapted to many human-made things in their natural environment and can also take care of themselves in the wild. They can find shelter in buildings, get water from bird baths in gardens, and even get food from human-made food sources. It is helpful, especially when food is scarce in colder seasons, for humans to provide a little extra food for birds in a safe way!

Bird feeders are one of the many ways that humans have adapted their habitats to make them more welcoming to birds by providing one of those basic needs of habitat – food!

Science Goals

  • A habitat is the place that an animal naturally lives and grows.
  • Habitats provide animals with the four things they need to survive; food, water and shelter and protection.
  • Animals have adapted over time to their habitats.
  • Different animals have different needs for survival.
  • Birds have adapted to many habitats and can thrive in the natural environment or the human-related environment (buildings, parks, farms, ponds).

Vocabulary

  • habitat – the natural home or environment of an animal or plant.
  • biome – regions of the world with similar climate, animals and plants.
  • adaptation– the changes physical or behavioral characteristics of an animal that helps it survive in its environment.

Required Materials

  • craft roll
  • string
  • bird seed
  • cookie sheet or tray
  • hole punch
  • peanut butter or sun butter

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1

Create a hole on either side of your craft roll (we used a hole punch to make this process easier).

Step 2

Thread a string through the hole in the craft roll and tie the two ends together to make a handle.

Step 3

Spread peanut butter all over the surface of the craft roll.

Step 4

Pour bird seed onto a tray and roll the peanut-buttered-covered craft roll in the seed so that all the peanut butter is covered.

Step 5

Hang the finished feeder outside and wait for the wildlife to visit your habitat!

Optional STEM Activities

Resource 1

Get Outside! 

Exploring habitats is a great way to get outside with students. They can identify an animal habitat right where they live, play or go to school. Which type of habitat did you find? What animal lives there? How might the animal have adapted to live successfully in the habitat?

Have students draw a picture or make a diorama of their local habitat.

Resource 2

Animal and Habitat Match 

Choose two biomes, or, for older students, choose more habitats. Make a list or print images of animals and match the animal to the appropriate habitat.

You can get creative with this project – images are great or you can also use animal figures and sort them based on their habitat.

Advanced Exploration: Start students with animals incorrectly matched to a habitat (for example, penguins in the desert!) and have students get them “back home!” Reflect on the activity with students, asking why they chose the habitats for the animals.

Resource 3

Bird Beaks

For this you will need:

  • A variety of images of birds with various beaks, from around the world.
  • Toothpicks
  • Nets or plastic sandwich bags
  • tweezers
  • plastics spoons
  • clothes pins
  • scissors
  • A variety of materials to “pick up” – dried corn kernals, beads, gummy worms, string, seeds, uncooked macaroni, grass, etc.

Students will use the various “beaks”, or tools, to pick up the different objects and chart which ones worked best and why. How does this help them understand the images of the birds that they saw at the beginning of the lesson?