F-M middle schoolers are making a national impact with work taking place inside their classrooms, as they created bird replicas to be donated to an art installation that will travel the country once completed. Eighth graders at both Eagle Hill and Wellwood Middle Schools were visited by Syracuse University Professor Holly Greenberg, who spoke about her mission to raise awareness for bird collisions.
“It’s part of a bigger picture,” explained Eagle Hill Middle School Science Teacher Antonia Schroeder. “We’re letting students know that this is real, and we are a part of it.”
Professor Greenberg led students through a workshop, which began with an
overview of her crowdsourced art project. With help from those like our F-M middle school student, Professor Greenberg is making replicas of every bird killed from a window collision and collected on the streets of Chicago in 2023. That number comes out to 10,836 birds. Students were each provided a bird species, then were tasked with decorating their sewn bird with fabric provided by Professor Greenberg. Each bird was tagged and will eventually be added to the art installation, which will be a “carpet” about 300 feet in length.
Ahead of the professor’s visit, students volunteered to come to school on a Saturday to cut fabric and sew the birds that would eventually be decorated by each eighth grade student. The work for this exciting project is cross-curricular, as it ties in with New York State science lab requirements, as well as teaches Family and Consumer Science (FACS) skills.
F-M’s science teachers were inspired to invite Professor Greenberg into their classrooms thanks to the district’s March Staff Professional Development Day, where she first shared her workshop. F-M teachers were also able to make birds and contribute to the project.
