Field Trip in a Box

All that changed dramatically when a shiny coal-black bird as big as his arm was handed to him on a stick. Suddenly animated, Daveon sat upright and carefully began to run the back of two fingers over the bird’s soft feathers as instructed. Beside him, Matthew stared with awe at a giant hook-billed brown bird in his own hand. For the next two hours, their table was as lively as a nest full of cuckoos.

But this wasn’t all play. It was hard work. The students, each holding a bird of an unknown species, were told to compare their birds’ beaks and claws to the drawings on the plastic handouts that described the functions of different-shaped beaks and feet. Carefully (and incredibly, it seemed, in that chaotic space of chatter and inter-table consultations), the children took measurements and made drawings of bodies, claws, and beaks. Then they were told to come up with hypotheses about their birds’ habitats and what they ate.

“Mine is 52 centimeters,” concluded Matthew midway through the class, putting down a ruler and magnifying glass to record his finding. “I got the biggest one,” he proclaimed. Daveon, by his side, stayed nose down, studying his chart.

Nature in the Classroom was created by museum director and biology professor Peter Wimberger following a 2006 review of the museum’s future by college administrators. Across the country, small museums in small colleges were being dismantled and their collections scattered because of financial pressures. The museum, with its 150-year-old collection of more than 85,000 specimens, was safe, but Peter was urged to find a way to lift the museum’s profile and better engage students and the community.

He created this “field trip in a box” using museum specimens, and applied for funding to help support school visits. It was an unusual and ambitious venture for a small college, but it caught on quickly with local teachers who were facing cuts in funding for school outings.

In partnership with Tacoma Public Schools, the museum developed four curricula: Wild Things! Bird Diversity! Tooth Sleuth, and Leaves of Change. The large portable boxes include specimens such as Douglas fir cones, sea stars, great horned owl vertebrae, mountain beaver skulls, and coyote jaws, as well as the dazzling collection of birds on sticks.

“The number of children who haven’t been to a museum is often surprising,” says Sarah, an Idaho-born former outdoor guide who joined the museum last fall. “A lot of times this is their first real experience with something like this.” The museum’s own research shows that about half of the students who participate in the program are from low-income families.

“It was a need articulated by teachers,” Peter says. “We filled that need.” He adds that Puget Sound students also are winners. They pick up new skills by helping to teach the school classes and by serving as docents when schoolchildren visit the museum. Through a variety of programs, including the popular “Night at the Museum” open houses, the museum now reaches more than 15,000 people a year—more than any other Puget Sound program, except for athletics.

Back at Jennie Reed, the clock was running out, and it was time for the birds’ identities to be revealed. Cards naming each specimen were handed out, face down. “No peeking!” warned Sarah. Then came the big reveal.

“I got a red-tailed hawk!” exclaimed Matthew. “I got an American crow!” cried Daveon. Excited students ran around showing off their birds and clustered around the spookiest and prettiest ones, learning their names. Sarah told them that these birds are flying all around the areas where they live. “So keep your eyes out!”

As for Peter, it’s clear that he, in his modest way, is proud of creating these mini maelstroms of naturalist inquiry in schools across the region. The feedback from teachers is excellent, he says. One teacher, who taught outside the served area, drove all the way from Salem, Ore., to pick up a kit and then back again to return it. “I don’t know of anything else quite like it,” Peter says.