Get ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Great Blue Heron
2009 Great Backyard Bird Count
Photo credit: Marianne DiAntonio, FL

If you live in North America, mark your calendars! It's almost time for the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Held in February, this year's count will occur from February 12-15, 2010.

Want to participate? It's easy! You need to count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the survey and then enter your data online. You can download a tally sheet for birds in your geographic area here and look for special GBBC events near your home. There's even a flickr group where you can upload your bird photos taken during the count. And if you are snapping pics, be sure to participate in this year's photo contest (you can win prizes!).

Get ready to identify birds by taking this sound quiz (love the title, "Guess Who's Squawkin'!") and visiting the online bird guide from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with profiles of over 550 species. And don't worry if, like me, you can't identify every bird that you spot during your count. There's a special box to check on the survey if that's the case. Be sure to download a participation certificate (this is a .pdf file) after you've completed your count!

TOYchallenge 2010

Looking for a creative way to teach science to your group? How about TOYchallenge 2010? This toy design competition is for 5th to 8th graders in the U.S. and Canada, offered through Sally Ride Science. With an adult coach, each 3-6 member team of kids (half of the team must be female!) designs a new toy over the remainder of the school year. But you don't have be affiliated with a school to join in - homeschoolers, after-school clubs, and neighborhood groups are welcome.

Toys must be original and can not be built using pieces of existing toys. Each proposed toy must fit into one of three categories: Toys that Teach, Games for the Family, or Get Out and Play. After choosing your category, each team follows an engineering design process to prepare a written description and drawings of the proposed toy, due in the Preliminary Round Entry, which closes on February 12, 2010. Promising design teams are then invited to travel to compete in the Nationals (you can apply for travel assistance to off-set the cost, but all teams are expected to fundraise to offset their costs). Last year's competition was held in May at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, but previous competitions have been held in other locations.

Check out last year's winners for inspiration. There's even a page of ideas to get you started. But there's only a week left to register, so be sure to sign up now! (Note: there is a $65 registration fee.)


Photo credit: Kok Leng Yeo through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license via flickr.

Waste Reduction Week 2009

Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street has been spotted roaming the Great White North again, and you know what that means. It's time for Waste Reduction Week in Canada!

The beloved spokes-muppet was reported missing at the end of September, and video has cropped up on the Waste Reduction Week website indicating that Oscar is secretly learning about trash in Canada. So far, he has been spotted in Toronto and Vancouver.

You, too, can learn about the 3 R's -- reduce, reuse, and recycle. Visit Waste Reduction Week to download a resource kit for your school (this is a .pdf file) with forms to complete a waste assessment and ideas for a waste reduction action plan. You can also learn how to make recycled paper, build a composter, enjoy fun and games, and more.



(My thanks to The Muppet Newsflash for reminding me about this important annual event.)

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Waste Reduction Week 2008

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Got waste? Check out TerraCycle!