As we walked into Lili Glassman's 3rd grade class at Linwood E. Howe Elementary in Culver City, Los Angeles, CA, there was an apparent shimmer of excitement. Students were yelling across the room, welcoming us and sharing stories of birds they had seen. Some stories seemed like tall tales, but as our walk about their campus began, what also became apparent was that these kids all had a keen awareness for the natural world. Each student seemed to have a favorite spot where they had seen a bird, or thought they had seen a nest, that they wanted to show us. Some of these favorite spots even included bird feeders, bird baths, and bird houses in the yards of neighboring houses across the street.

Students hands shot in the air at every question Darrow asked.

Olivia tallies up the species list while Darrow talks about eBird.

We spent a whole hour walking the school premises in search of birds high and low. The students jumped at the opportunity to count the number of birds we were seeing and added up a total of forty nine birds, across nine different species!

Good listeners make good scientists.

When in doubt, figure it out.

We were sad to be leaving these students so quickly, however we know that their curiosity and awareness will carry them a long way.