Upcoming Session Dates (6-week class)

• Fall 2024 Session #2: October 28-December 15, 2024**
• Spring 2025 Session #1: January 6-February 16, 2025
• Spring 2025 Session #2: February 17-March 30, 2025
• Spring 2025 Session #3: March 31-May 18, 2025**
• Join the mailing list for future enrollment dates

**Break weeks 11/25-12/1 and 4/14-4/20, no materials assigned and no live office hours.

This class has optional, live, weekly, online office hours on Thursday from 10-10:55 am CDT/CST 

 Fall Session Enrollment

With over 10,000 species worldwide today, birds are one of the most recognizable and diverse groups of living animals on the planet.  Learn about the fossils and phylogenetic studies that provide evidence of how the highly successful avian body plan evolved gradually over millions of years, primarily during the Jurassic and Cretaceous from theropod dinosaurs. The earliest birds diversified during the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous and then experienced a massive die-off (like their dinosaur relatives) at the end of the Cretaceous.  After the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, the surviving avian lineage explosively diversified into the groups of living birds that we see today.  

Course Topic Outline:

Week 1: Archaeopteryx and early discoveries in the quest for the origin of birds

Birds are an incredibly diverse and recognizable group of living vertebrates whose evolutionary origins began to be uncovered with the emergence of Darwin’s Origin of Species and the discovery of the fossil Archaeopteryx.  

Week 2: Introduction to theropod dinosaurs and bird-like features in non-avian theropod dinosaurs

Birds are theropod dinosaurs and many of the hallmark features of modern living birds like feathers, wishbones, and egg brooding first evolved in the dinosaur ancestors of birds.  

Week 3: The evolution of feathers and flight

The earliest feathers evolved in non-flying dinosaurs for purposes such as display and insulation, and flight evolved later in primitive birds and in their close non-avian relatives.  

Week 4: Early avian history (Avialae/Aves)

The transition from non-bird dinosaurs to birds was gradual and the earliest birds did not possess all of the distinguishing features of today’s living birds such as a keeled sternum, pygostyle, and a beak.  

Week 5: Diversification of Neornithes (modern birds)

After mass-extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period, birds underwent explosive diversification resulting in more than 10,000 living species of birds that we see today.  

Week 6: Final Project

Complete a creative project to demonstrate learning.

Class Components:

This class is hosted independently using Google Classroom and Google Meet. Students must have a Google email to enroll. 

Weekly Office Hour:

Each week, students may choose to participate in an optional, live, 55-minute office hour for instructor support and interaction with other students taking courses in the Ornithologist in Training Course Series. During this time, students may ask the instructor questions, work on course materials independently, or work on course materials with other students in small groups. The office hour begins with a brief greeting and goal-setting session to help students identify their goals for the office hour session and ends with a brief opportunity to share learning insights and course material progress.     

Weekly Lessons:

Each Monday morning students receive a link to an interactive lesson using Pear Deck. Lessons are designed to take 30-45 minutes to complete. Pear Deck lessons include slide visuals, audio recordings, video, and website links to explore as well as opportunities for students to respond to questions and prompts embedded in the lesson. Students  receive instructor feedback on their lesson responses.  

Weekly Quizzes:

Each Monday morning students receive a link to a 10 question quiz.  Quizzes are “open notes”, and students may refer to the Pear Deck lesson and any additional notes. Quizzes are designed to take 15-20 minutes, and provide immediate feedback for students may use to check their understanding of the course material.    

Weekly Assignments: 

Assignments allow students to extend the lesson or synthesize what they have learned by completing a hands-on activity, lab, scientific paper analysis, and/or a classroom discussion. Weekly assignments are designed to take about 30-45 minutes to complete and receive feedback from the instructor.  

Final Project:

The final project is completed during the last week of the course. Final projects should integrate knowledge and understanding from at least 2 lessons and will require the student to create something new. Final projects can take many forms, including but not limited to: a 3-D model/craft, artwork, an infographic, a video, a photo collage, etc… Students will be provided with project examples and a guideline rubric at the beginning of the week. Projects are designed to take 1-2 hours to complete. Students will share their work and comment on one another’s projects through a discussion post. Students receive individual feedback from the instructor based on the guidelines in the rubric.  

Notes About Assignments and Grades:

All assignments submitted on time will receive individual feedback from the instructor. Grades are optional in this course and the grading scale and grading methods are specified in the course syllabus. Students who wish to receive a grade (percentage and letter grade) should notify the instructor by the start of the 2nd week of class. The full course syllabus will be provided on the first day of class and is available early upon request.

Ornithologist in Training Curriculum Series

This course is part of the Ornithologist in Training Curriculum Series, a rigorous, multi-year ornithology curriculum culminating in the development of skills in independent ornithology field research and college-prep scientific writing. Each course in the Ornithologist in Training Curriculum Series may be taken as a stand-alone course, or in series using any order.

Learners seeking a comprehensive multi-year curriculum in Ornithology may want to consider taking two courses that pair together in one semester. Here is an example of how a learner could use the Ornithologist in Training curriculum series to take 3 full years of ornithology courses:

• Year 1, Semester 1: The Evolution of Birds
  • The Origin and Diversification of Birds (6 weeks, 1.5-2.5 hr per week)
  • Bird Evolutionary Biology and Systematics (6 weeks, 1.5-2.5 hr per week)
• Year 1, Semester 2: Bird Anatomy, Physiology, and Adaptations for Flight 
  • Bird Anatomy and Physiology (6 weeks, 1.5-2 .5 hr per week)
  • Bird Feathers and Flight (6 weeks, 1.5-2.5 hr per week)
• Year 2, Semester 1: Bird Behavior
  • Bird Foraging Behavior  (6 weeks, 1.5-2 .5 hr per week) - under development
  • Breeding Biology of Birds (6 weeks, 1.5-2 .5 hr per week) - under development
• Year 2, Semester 2: Ecology of Birds
  • Bird Migration and Dispersal  (6 weeks, 1.5-2 .5 hr per week) - under development
  • Bird Population and Community Ecology (6 weeks, 1.5-2 .5 hr per week) - under development
• Year 3, Semester 1: Avian Research and Scientific Writing (12 weeks, 3-4 hr per week)
• Year 3, Semester 2: Mentoring in Field Research and Scientific Writing: After completing the course Avian Research and Scientific Writing, dedicated ornithology students often use subsequent semesters to refine their scientific writing/presentation skills and pursue research interests through the  1-to-1 independent research mentoring opportunities.

This course is geared toward learners of all types.

Assignment and Course Materials Accommodations

• We all learn in different ways, and I am happy to modify assignments and course materials to remove barriers that may be making it difficult for students to learn in this class. 
• I keep my course sizes small, allowing me to tailor course materials to individual learner needs. 
• Please feel welcome, at any time, to reach out to me to discuss any challenges your learner is facing and how I can help through course modifications and accommodations. You are always welcome to suggest a modification to an assignment or a course materials accommodation that will help your learner. 

There are some helpful tools/features that are already built into this course to help support students with diverse learning needs.