Eagle Eye To The World Global Project: Year 2! Sign Up NOW!!!!

The second year of the global school project focused around two bald eagles, Liberty and Justice, and their journey surviving, laying eggs, and raising eaglets along the freezing waters of the Mississippi River are about to begin.

We have a few weeks left to get signed up.

Monday, December 30th I will be hosting an online meeting to go over the project and answer any questions. The project is filled with unlimited possibilities.

The goal of the collaboration is to help students and teachers learn how to connect and communicate globally while at the same time sharing out what they are learning at the local level. The project is an ongoing project where we come together to share out ideas and projects. I have many ideas in mind and will share those out soon.

Here is the link to the website - http://eagleeyeproject2.wikispaces.com/

Please check it out. Consider signing up. Last year we had four countries and really some amazing work created and gathered. You can check out work from last year here http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

We are in need of some more classes to make this project happen. Spread the word and please sign up. It is a blast to watch nature work and so many learning opportunities exist.

If you have questions let me know. Otherwise I look forward to the registration form filling up.

ALCOA: Eagle Eye to the World Final Celebration

Last Friday, after some technical difficulties of getting connected several classroom joined online to celebrate and bring to a close the first year of the Alcoa: Eagle Eye to the World Celebration project.

Students worked hard to create something to be remembered by. It was great seeing Matt, Donna, and Lisa join us online along with their classrooms.

Matt had his students perform their song live for us. It was a very touching song and I felt so moved by what they accomplished and created. It just goes to show the power of students and what can be done when you can ignite their interest.

For the first year of running and operating this project I honestly could not be more pleased. Things were not perfect, but when is anything perfect. This project turned out great due to the classes and teachers involved.

We were not able to record our meeting, but I wish we could have showed you the kids. They were awesome. Here are some videos of the celebration products.

Here is a link for the actual project - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

Through the Eyes of an Eagle: http://buff.ly/13nGUG1  




My students created two videos - one for each class.

4th grade



5th grade

Liberty and Justice Updates, Identification, and Facts

I write this blog post after not having time to create some more learning videos. I have crafted a few learning videos over on our ALCOA Eagle Eye to the World project page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Eagle+Learning+Videos

Instead I would like to bring everyone up to speed with the eaglets in case you have not been watching the camera on a daily basis. The eaglets are now a little over two weeks old. They are getting big. If you have not checked the camera please do so so you can see how big they have grown.

http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

By this point they have gained a couple pounds and should be able to thermoregulate their bodies. They are growing everyday. They are eating quite well. The massive piles of food in the nest just blows my mind. We have continued to chart the food brought into the nest each day. As always, feel free to help us keep track of things happening in the nest. We have two pages on our wiki page where we are trying to document all events in the nest.

1. http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglet+Food+Chart - This page we are tracking all food brought into the nest. Really impressive when you look at the daily events of the nest.

2. http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglets - This page we are tracking daily events of the nest as well as pictures. 

Please feel free to help us out. I know we can do more, but with with teaching, jobs, and kids it is all about crowdsourcing at this point.

Some of you have asked over and over how to better identify the eagles. Liberty is pictured below

Rare shot today of Liberty sporting both identifying marks, above the eye and on the tail.

Next, many have contacted me about how high the nest is in the tree and perspective of the area. Here are some photos to help give you a better sense. The nest is about 80 feet in the tree. It is about 7 feet wide and 5 feet deep. It is massive. I hope these images courtesy of the amazing John Riches help give you a better sense.

As always, thank you to everyone students and adults who continue to find interest in the eagles as well as continue asking questions. Every single day there is something to learn. Keep the dialogue and questions coming. Until next time.......

Liberty and Justice Bald Eagles: Learning Episode #3

Please check out our project page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/


You can view the other learning videos - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Eagle+Learning+Videos

We still need people to help document the journey of the eaglets, food, and day to day activities here http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglets and here http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglet+Food+Chart

Eaglets Day 6: Sunshine and Feeding(well, for some)

I have not had much time to watch the eagles today being the last day before spring break here at my school. However, this afternoon I was able to check in and see the eaglets enjoying the sunshine.

Some feeding was going on, but #2 did not get any food. This bothers some people, but I think he/she will be just fine. I will be creating a new learning episode this weekend to discuss this topic and more. I hope you have enjoyed the first two. If you missed them you can check them out here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

The above link takes you to our project page for school. You can see in the sidebar a link to Eagle Learning Videos as well as other things we are charting. Please help us out if you want. We are trying to crowd source the documentation of eating and what food is brought into nest. Feel free to join us and help us out.

Bald Eagle Student Showcase: Video of Presentations and Link to Visuals

Here is a video link to some of the student projects from our ALCOA Eagle Eye to the World Showcase. 30 students from the Bettendorf ELP program in grades 4 and 5 presented an independent study project on one aspect of bald eagles.

Here is a link to the video - http://youtu.be/3PxDIW19g0I

This is the link to our bald eagle global project page as well as all things we have done with the eagles - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Final+Showcase

Feel free to check out all the things on the site above.

Day 5 of Eaglets: Feeding and Learning Video #2

Eagle Learning Episode #2 - http://youtu.be/2pGHmpX-XkY

Subject Matter

• Shooting
• Liberty Identification
• General Eagle Facts
• Native American current events in regards to eagle feathers
• Endangered List
• Lack of thermo system
• Sibling rivalry
• Size of talons

This video captures eating times recorded from March 20th while I record over the video things we have learned the last few days. Hope you enjoy and always feel free to ask questions and provide new things for us to share.

Don't forget to visit our project page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

We are adding items every single day!

Liberty and Justice: Snacking on Squirrels For Breakfast

This morning my son and I turned the Bald Eagle Camera on to check the eagles. My son is starting to be engaged in this wonderful camera and sharing things at school. We had a nice surprise feeding while eating breakfast. As we ate pancakes the eagles were snacking on a delicious squirrel. It is always so cool to watch them engage in feeding and survival in the nest. Happy morning to all. I look forward to the rest of the day.

This was right around 7 am this morning.

Bald Eagle Project: Eaglets Day 4 Feeding of Coot, Rabbit, Fish and What We Are Learning

http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

ALCOA: Eagle Eye to World - How we started and where we are.....

With the recent excitement of two new hatchlings in a bald eagle nest located here in the Quad Cities I have been hit with many questions about what my students are currently doing as a project dealing with eagles.

I thought it would a be a good time right now to go back and talk about where we started and where we are and where we hope to be in the future.

Step 1: The Beginning

In the summer of 2012 a few Bettendorf teachers thought about ways to get going with project based learning. This is something that our school is looking to shift to as a schoolwide model. At the same time ALCOA was looking for some educational materials to be created. ALCOCA has a bald eagle camera as well as an osprey camera. Last year ALCOA Bald Eagle camera had over 12 million visitors and has been awarded a top 25 camera award. We wrote a grant to work on curriculum for the classroom as well as develop a global project to connect students from various classrooms to study the eagles, Liberty and Justice.

So a few Bettendorf teachers and former students created lesson plans for classrooms to use while following the camera. I also created a global project to coincide with the camera. I am a big fan of the Flat Classroom and am certified and finally felt ready to conduct and create my own global project. Using the Alcoa Bald Eagle Camera to drive learning and enhancements of 21st century skills I set out to find schools to join us.

You can see the project page here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

Step 2: Getting Started

Amazingly, through a lot of social media sharing and campaigning we were able to get 9 schools to join us from the Netherlands, Canada, Texas, North Carolina, and Illinois. As the project unfolded we were down to about 4 classrooms, but these four classrooms and teachers are beyond amazing. With any global project have you to realize not everyone will see things through. Especially when it is free.

The goal of the project is to connect classrooms. We want students to work together, share, discuss, and collaborate to create something powerful. We are using bald eagles as our platform. It has been an amazing journey. I have found myself truly caring for the eagles in ways I never thought. Additionally, students are excited to learn. They cannot wait to come to class to check the eagles, read Edmodo to see what students shared, and work on their Voicethread for their final collaborative projects.







You may not be a participant in one of the classes, but that does not mean you cannot join in the fun. You are always welcome to follow along, create artwork or projects, and join us on this expedition.

Teachers and students are all learning at the same time and shouldn't school be about everyone learning and growing? I think so.

If you have questions, suggestions, or any great ideas please let me know. Until then, check the camera, watch the eagles, and watch our learning grow along the way.

Step 3: Where we are we right now?

Right now we are wrapping up our final project using Voicethread to record what we have learned about eagles. Students are finishing up their final parts to their scripts and we are getting ready for our final celebration. Additionally, just this past weekend both eaglets hatched. We have been watchign since January and about a month ago the eggs were laid. 35 days later they hatched and it is amazing to watch nature work. We are studying and learning more than I ever imagined. Students are realizing that something like the bald eagle has endless opportunities when it comes to learning and job careers.

Step 4: What if I want to join now?

Feel free. Come to our wiki page and join us http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home Join the wiki and contact me at (aarmau@gmail.com) to get access to Edmodo and have your students join the dialogue. The project is over, but we are documenting the journey of the eaglets. Each day we are tracking what happens. We are studying and trying to record food delivery and intake as well as development of the eaglets before they fly off in about 12 weeks. There is still time to jump in, learn and connect. Next year I hope to see the project expand to more classrooms, more students and learning.


To close, this has been an amazing experience. I was not sure how this would go and turn out. I was scared at first when nobody wanted to join. Now I feel like we have such a powerful learning project on our hands. Classrooms have been sharing what they are doing and to me that is amazing in itself. On the wiki page you can see what all the students have been doing. The wiki has become such a vast resource of teaching ideas and information that I cannot believe. Even now we are crowd sourcing the data collection. We are asking anyone to help us out. It is amazing how many people follow these eagles - Liberty and Justice - and their two yet to be named eaglets. I never thought it would turn out as great as it has so far.


Please come join us and let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas.

Eaglet Day 4: Wind, Weather, and Day 3 Updates

This morning I have finally had some time to check on the eagles. Yesterday we were so busy setting up and getting ready for our ALCOA Bald Eagle Showcase night where we had an amazing evening and turnout. It was great to see the kids really do an outstanding job. I will share images and video from the night soon.

With that going on I was not able to watch the camera as much as I like. Today I turned the camera on and noticed the eagles burrowed down to stay warm.

The wind is brutal today. It is howling when you listen to the camera and being outside really freezes you to the bone quickly.

You can see we have wind gusts up to 30 mph bringing the outside weather to 0 when factoring in the wind. They shared on the news that we are about two weeks behind in our spring weather. I hope the eagles can keep the eaglets warm.

I plan on going back and seeing if anyone had anything to share yesterday from the eagle nest. If you have something and would like like to add it to the wiki please do so by joining the wiki and then editing the page accordingly. We are keeping a running log of events here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglets

Also, I did not get a chance to track and monitor the food yesterday so if anyone was able to note new food brought into the nest that would be great by adding it to the chart or simply letting me know so I can add it.

http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglet+Food+Chart

Last, I hope everyone is enjoying our classroom project page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

We have a lot going on the site and hopefully we can find something useful or inspirational.

Thanks to everyone who is following and helping out. Hope to see things continue. Let us hope the eaglets survive this cold!

Eaglets Day 3: 11:30 Lunch Time

Eaglets Day 3: Two eaglets are alive!!!

I woke up this morning to see that the nest had a new member.

I don't know when the second hatchling actually hatched as it must have been through the night, but this morning there were two little eaglets waiting for food from the mom.

You can see the camera and our project - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

And we have been documenting the journey here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglets

Enjoy!

And don't forget tonight is the ELP Showcase!

I will be super busy today so I would really love any help from others capturing video or pictures to doucment the day. Please consider adding information throughout the day to the wiki link posted above or email me at aarmau@gmail.com

Thanks for helping with the research and data logging.

Eaglet Day 2: Dinner for the Family

To wrap up the day of viewing the eagles I was able to capture both Liberty and Justice feeding the eaglet. As the sun went down, the second egg had not hatched despite a good size whole in it all day.

I thought I had this whole feeding recorded, but have seemed to had something go wrong with the recording. I will continue to search and find it as it was a sight to behold.

Here is a video from 12:10 of some feeding footage. My internet was slow so it does freeze during the viewing, but you can still see Liberty feeding the eaglet. Not as cool as dinner, but good enough for now - http://youtu.be/wl5jAJ8a_0o

In the meantime here are the pictures I took using my iPhone while I was recording on my Mac.

Eaglet Development: Hatchling Phase

We are on day 2 of hatching of the eaglets. One hatched yesterday and the other is very close to hatching. I thought it would be important to offer some insight about the development of the eaglets.

Before I dig in I plan on documenting their journey into the real world over on our school global project site - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/home

We would to have you join us and help crowdsource the information. Please consider adding photos, blog posts, and information that you have about the eagles on our page. We have one page on the site titled, 2013 eaglets, where we hope to document each day of the eaglets to keep track of the process as well as document our learning. The more we have contribute the better the page will be.

Okay, now for some information that I have collected.

Eggs are hatched by the order in which they were laid. Some have asked if the stronger eaglet hatches first and the answer is no, it is based on order. They pip the shell using their beak tooth or egg tooth and then the slow process begins. It takes a ton of energy to break from the shell and therefore can take hours to finally emerge. We incubated and hatched quail earlier in the year as a parallel study and it was amazing how long it took and when they finally emerge they almost look dead because they are so exhausted.

The male typically is the one that brings in the food. As of this writing there are three fish in the nest. One was brought in yesterday after the hatching and two more fish were brought in this morning. We have seen the mother already tear some strips from the fish to feed the young and it is amazing to watch the eaglet eat.

The eaglet is very weak during the first few days. They have a hard time lifting their head, they cannot walk, and have very limited vision. During the first few days the eaglet is called a hatchling. They are not able to eat during the first day which is what we observed during the first day Saturday.

The parents are very cautious in the nest. They will bring in their talons to not risk hurting the young eaglet.

During this first week the eaglets will not do much. They cannot control their temperature so the parents will keep them covered to stay warm. They will not lose their color which the grayish hue. They will lose their egg tooth and slowly become more active.

On average the eaglets are hatched weighing around 3 ounces which to help give a visual is about 18 nickels. They are quite small, but grow fast. This information comes from the paper 'Physical Development of Nestling Bald Eagle Growth with Special Emphasis on the Timing of Growth Events', written by Gary Bortolotti. They will gain about one pound every 4-5 days

I am going to continue to provide facts and information as I learn more and study more. As stated above please feel free to help out and share what you know, images captured, etc. The more the merrier.

Feeding Eaglet and hole in egg #2 @ 12:46 on 3.17.13

Momma feeding the eaglet some fish and a chance to see egg  #2 start to open up

3 Fish in the nest 9:38 am

They are loading up the food supply in the nest this morning.

Two Eaglet Videos from the hatching yesterday

Here are two videos showing the eaglet yesterday about an hour after hatching.

The first one I shared yesterday and the second one I am sharing is new.

http://youtu.be/_EBeH6J2zBI

http://youtu.be/6XH714yaMsI


Also, for our school global project we have added a new page to document the journey of the eaglets. If you have anything to add please share. The more crowdsourcing the better the documentation will be.

Here is a link to the page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/2013+Eaglets

Video of Eaglet

Here is a video of the eaglet. You get a chance to see the eaglet. I took some screenshots which I did not think would show up in the recording, but it did so I apologize.

Enjoy! I have more to share.

Liberty and Justice First Eaglet 3.16.13 at 5:41 pm

At 5:41 I saw the eagle. These images are from about 20 minutes later. I have a video coming shortly, but just had to share the images. Hot off the press or should I say hot out of the shell.