Rossilyn Perry suggested building bird houses when Dr. Bobby Rice, principal, asked for input on elective classes that students would enjoy.
Building bird houses is an activity where students learn basic safety rules for using tools and equipment, for measuring skills and for learning basic design skills. For many students, building a bird house was their very first woodworking project.
In addition to learning how to use tools to construct the bird houses, students also learned what Eastern Bluebirds require for safe bird houses and proper habitat.
Mrs. Perry insisted that students create high quality houses that will last for years. The bird houses were constructed from fence pickets measured by the students and then cut to size by Eddy Coleman, a community volunteer.
Coleman then brought the cut fence pickets to assist the students with the assembly of the bird houses, which were put together with screwdrivers and wood screws.
After construction was completed, some of the projects have been installed at the Intermediate campus where science classes will be able to observe the birds that use the bird houses, to see what birds use to make the nest, to see how many eggs they lay, to observe how long it takes them to hatch and what they feed their young.
Most students preferred to take their bird house projects home to establish habitats in their back yards.