Review by Polly Conway, Common Sense Education | Updated November 2013

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The WildLab

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Fun bird-watching site teaches research and conservation skills

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Grades

3-10 This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.

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The WildLab lets kids get outside and watch the skies for birds.

Although the site's been used the most in New York, you can tweak the curriculum for your own area.

A handy curriculum guide helps kids explore with purpose.

You can track your birding stats on the website, but sightings are best entered on a mobile device.

Kids will like seeing their sightings pop up on Google Maps.

Pros: It's a unique way to get kids thinking about conservation; they'll have fun exploring the outdoors and recording their findings.

Cons: You can't do much on the website if you don't also have the corresponding iPhone app.

Bottom Line: This cool program would benefit from some updates; although it helps to have an iPhone, you can still find a ton of inspiration on the website.

Lesson & Activity Ideas

It's a cool program to implement in your classroom, even if you don't follow the WildLab's curriculum exactly. They've provided a formal lesson plan as well as more casual ideas on how to teach kids about conservation; both are solid resources that you can build upon for your own students. Students love to spend time outside during school; even though bird-watching is a quiet, contemplative activity, they'll be happy to spend time in nature while also learning.

Tool Overview

The WildLab is a website that connects kids to nature and introduces them to conservation through bird-watching. Designed as a curriculm for New York state classrooms in 2009, it takes kids outside to watch the skies for birds, asking them to note their appearance and then input their data into the WildLab app. You can view your sightings on the website by logging in with your username and password. You will be taken to your profile page, where your personal sightings are listed.

You can log sightings from your iPhone and then watch as the website populates with the information you've added. Recent sightings scroll across the top of the screen.

Learning Value

It's a really neat idea that seems to have stalled a bit, judging from the infrequent updates, but there's enough going on here for your classes to have a few fun-filled days of exploring nature. You can use the original lesson plan created for New York-based students and tweak it for your own classroom; the program originally provided binoculars and iPhones to participating classrooms. They may still be able to do so; they ask that you contact them for details.

The scrolling data bar that shows recent bird sightings is fun; kids will appreciate the kooky bird names like the Blue-Black Grassquit and Manx Shearwater. Lots of urban students don't get the chance to do this kind of bird-watching very often; it seems that one of WildLab's priorities is helping such students get out into the woods, and they've created a solid program for making that happen. Although it's tricky to follow their program exactly if you don't have iPhones or iPads for each student, you can easily tweak the curriculum. The app is much better designed than the website and has more options; it would be nice if they added to the site so that it offered more features.

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Design is basic but modern. Kids will love going out into nature to look for birds or other wildlife and later seeing their sighting marked on a Google map.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Field sessions effortlessly teach research skills, and kids will return from them feeling empowered, like real scientists adding important data to a study.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

There's not much help available, especially for navigating the website without the accompanying app. A sister site, WildLab Marine, which helps kids spot marine life, uses the same technology; there's also a Facebook page.

Common Sense Reviewer

Polly Conway Classroom teacher

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Featured review by
Chris C. , Technology coordinator

Technology coordinator

Heathcote School
Scarsdale, NY

Great potential but iPhone requirement is a hindrance

My overall opinion is The WildLab looks like it has a ton of potential. The need for iPhones is a huge stumbling block, especially in the lower grades were few students have their own devices, and not always iPhones.

It would be great if there was a way to use an iPad or iPod Touch to take the photo and document, in some way other than GPS, the location of the photo and then use the website, or a school's wifi, to upload the photo and add GPS data later.

I am definitely going to pursue the offer from The WildLab to help with acquiring iPhones and I will also work with my Principal and Science teacher to try to figure out a way to allow students who have access to iPhones to bring them, and use them, at certain times as part of these lessons. The ability to get out of the classroom, and school, and take a local nature walk is an amazing opportunity. I think students will love it once we can get over the technology hurdle of needing iPhones.

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Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
3-LS4
3-LS4-2	Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
3-LS4-3	Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
3-LS4-4	Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
HS-LS4
HS-LS4-6	Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
MS-LS4
MS-LS4-4	Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
MS-LS4-5	Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
Earth and Human Activity
5-ESS3
5-ESS3-1	Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
HS-ESS3
HS-ESS3-4	Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
MS-ESS3
MS-ESS3-3	Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
3-LS2
3-LS2-1	Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
5-LS2
5-LS2-1	Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
HS-LS2
HS-LS2-1	Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
HS-LS2-2	Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-LS2-6	Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-8	Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.
MS-LS2
MS-LS2-1	Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2	Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-4	Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
MS-LS2-5	Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
4-LS1
4-LS1-1	Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
MS-LS1
MS-LS1-4	Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
MS-LS1-5	Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
3-LS3
3-LS3-2	Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

The WildLab

Fun bird-watching site teaches research and conservation skills

Subjects and Skills: The WildLab

Take a look inside

Lesson & Activity Ideas

Tool Overview

Learning Value

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Key Standards Supported

Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

3-LS4

HS-LS4

MS-LS4

Earth and Human Activity

5-ESS3

HS-ESS3

MS-ESS3

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

3-LS2

5-LS2

HS-LS2

MS-LS2

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

4-LS1

MS-LS1

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

3-LS3

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