The Fripp Audubon Club has formed a partnership with Beaufort Elementary School — home of the Seagulls — to inspire students to learn more about birds and bird identification, advise the school on bird habitat improvements in the school’s Life Lab and to help create a “bird walk” art display for the bird named hallways.

[caption id="attachment_5843" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Birding 101 Fourth grade"]<a href="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Birding-101-Fourth-Grade1.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-5843" title="Birding 101 Fourth Grade1" src="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Birding-101-Fourth-Grade1-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="168" /></a>[/caption]

The initiative will pilot the Fripp Audubon programs with Beaufort Elementary School’s fourth grade science students and fourth grade engineering students in the school’s AMES Academy. In March, following up on Audubon’s sponsored Great Backyard Bird Count, Beaufort Elementary will hold its first Fripp Audubon partnered event with a bird feeder building workshop, bird talks and the unveiling of Fripp Audubon and collaborative artwork to be displayed in the school’s hallways.
Additionally, Fripp Audubon has coordinated to bring Charleston’s Center for Birds of Prey to Beaufort Elementary for a school-wide visit and flight demonstration. This Spring, 4th grade science classes are invited to Fripp Island for a birding field trip to the Audubon Nature Trail in order to reinforce and apply in the field what the students have learned in the classroom.
Darby James, school coordinator for the partnership program, says “a team of science teachers have been working on program development for months. We are very excited about this community partnership and the fledgling birders that it will inspire in our BES Seagulls.”
“There is a great deal of excitement about the partnership,” says Sally Work, the program coordinator for Fripp Audubon. “This is part of an initiative to help develop a template for other schools in the future.”