Looking for a unique way to teach your classes about raptors and the wildlife of Alaska? Let us help! We offer many easy ways to bring the Alaska Raptor Center into your classroom.
Classes can adopt one of our Raptors-in-Residence and help the Alaska Raptor Center provide for the daily care, feeding and medical treatment of their adopted bird. In return, teachers receive ready-to-teach curriculum materials to help plan lessons and activities on raptors and their habitats; a videotape; an adoption certificate and photo of the adopted bird to display in the classroom; natural history and information on the bird; and a one-year membership to the Alaska Raptor Center. Most important, the students learn about stewardship and caring for wild animals, building a foundation and appreciation for nature conservation they can develop as they grow.
Order your 90-page curriculum guide, video and poster to help bring raptor education alive in your classroom.
- Class Materials
- What's Included?
- What Will My Student's Learn?
- The Program and National Education Standards
- Cost
If you're like most teachers, you have a constant need for high-quality educational materials that are ready to use and easily adapted to fit the unique needs of each classroom. In this spirit, the Alaska Raptor Center is excited to offer a multidisciplinary curriculum package to help schoolchildren learn about birds, raptors and the habitats in which they live. By “adopting” one of the education birds here at the Center, your classroom helps pay for the ongoing medical care, feeding and housing of our birds while learning important ideas through an exploration of raptors.
More than simply worksheets and activities in this content area, the "Adopt-a-Raptor" program materials are aligned with national science, math, language arts, and social studies standards to support student learning of key concepts in many disciplines. Learning goals and standards addressed are identified for each activity and suggestions for differentiation and standardized test preparation are clearly marked throughout the package. Step-by-step instructions are included to reduce teacher preparation time.
The Adopt-a-Raptor program was developed by classroom teachers and a Ph.D. in curriculum and assessment to make the experience both fun and educational for your students. It’s truly a unique opportunity to expand minds as we heal birds.
The Adopt-a-Raptor materials include:
- A highly-teachable 90-page curriculum package with teacher instructions and background material for each activity. Black-line masters for each activity are ready for photocopying and classroom use.
- Many of the other supplies needed for the activities.
- A video introducing raptors and the work done at the Alaska Raptor Center
- A poster showing several different types of raptors (bald eagle, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk)
- An adoption certificate
- A photo, natural history and biography of your adopted bird
By adopting one of our resident birds, your classroom helps us heal Alaska’s wild birds. And, your students learn important material . . . they will:
- Calculate wing surface area and weight proportions for birds and animals
- Learn key raptor adaptations, including eyes, ears, beaks and feathers
- Write their own “folk legend” about different raptor characteristics
- Build reading skills with content area stories, passages and materials
- Plot longitude and latitude on maps for raptor location and migration
- The enclosed activities/standards grid gives more detail and shows how each is linked to standards in the different disciplines
...Expanding Minds & Healing Birds
More than simply worksheets and activities in this content area, the Adopt-a-Raptor program materials are aligned with national science, math, language arts, and social studies standards to support student learning of key concepts in many disciplines. Learning goals and standards addressed are identified for each activity and suggestions for differentiation and standardized test preparation are clearly marked throughout the package.
The Adopt-a-Raptor program was developed by classroom teachers and a Ph.D. in curriculum and assessment to make the experience both fun and educational for your students. It’s truly a unique opportunity to expand minds as we heal birds.
The $95 covers all of the curriculum and activities, a poster, video and many of the materials needed for the activities. In addition, your classroom adoption helps cover the ongoing medical care, feeding and housing needs of our resident birds . . . the Adopt-A-Raptor program . . . Expanding Minds & Healing Birds.
Bring a live bald eagle to your school! To teach people about Alaska's wild birds and environmental conservation, our "Raptors-in-Residence" travel with their handlers to classrooms across the country, from Alaska to Florida to New York, and points in between. School children learn more about the birds, their habitats and Alaska first-hand during these up-close visits. Our classroom visits focus upon Alaska's wildlife and conservation, and, of course, the important role bald eagles and other birds have in the environment. Our education birds - including our "ambassador," Volta, the bald eagle - are powerful and effective teachers who leave a lasting impression on those who meet them. Classroom visits are customized by age, from elementary school through high school - children of all ages share a common thrill in a visit from Volta or another of our birds.
For more information on our education programs, call (800) 643-9425 or email us at volunteers.alaskaraptor@alaska.com.
