Partnering for Education

PRBO’s education program is proud to be a part of the award-winning watershed education program called STRAW. The STRAW project is a project of The Bay Institute and The Center For Ecoliteracy with numerous other partners. The STRAW project works with ranchers and private landowners to restore riparian habitat on Bay Area creeks. In the last restoration season (fall and winter), 250 students planted over 3 miles of creek (both sides) with over 3,000 willows and other native plants. In addition to hands-on restorations, students and teachers participating in STRAW learn about all aspects of watershed conservation - from birds, to insects, to native plants, and water quality. The STRAW program supports a network of teachers with the resources and experts in various fields, so that teachers can create a project based learning strategy for studying their local watershed year round.

Download our 2003-2004 STRAW Bird Program publication that highlights student learning, The Junior Observer (this may take over 1 minute to download).

2002-2003 STRAW Student artwork inspired by a bird field trip to a local wetland

PRBO’s role in STRAW is to provide teacher support, educational programs, and classroom resources focusing on birds of Bay Area watersheds. Through the bird program, students learn to identify and study the native birds of their watershed. Teachers are trained and provided teaching tools to facilitate their bird study projects. PRBO’s education staff offer students in-the-field experiences which include observing mist-netting and bird banding and observing birds in the field, often on their school campus, with biologists. We also conduct programs in the classroom using hands-on tools, such as study skins (stuffed bird specimens), field guides, nests, and feathers, to learn about the life histories and conservation of our local birds.

An exciting product of the STRAW Bird program is the Jr. Observer, a newsletter filled with poems, stories, and images created by students participating in the STRAW Bird Program. Click here to view the Jr. Observer. Please explore more student work at the 2007 STRAW Virtual Summit, a website displaying the culmination of a year of student learning.

For more information on the STRAW Bird Program, contact Melissa Pitkin

If you would like to know more about the STRAW Project as a whole, contact Laurette Rogers at the Bay Institute or visit the STRAW Project webpage