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New York City
August 2002

Schechter Students Track Screech Owls in Central Park
By Lori Skopp

Eleven students from Solomon Schechter High School of New York participated in an innovative screech owl field trip in Central Park recently. In September 2001, 18 Eastern screech owls were released into Central Park as part of an effort to restore native species to the park. Since then, scientists from the Parks Department Wildlife Management Program and Fordham University have monitored the owls using visual tracking and radio telemetry. The field trip was led by James MacDonald, one of the urban park rangers involved in the owl study. MacDonald began by showing the students the equipment used to track the owls. Each owl has a radio collar and a unique frequency signal that is transmitted to a portable receiver and antenna. Four nights a week one of the researchers for the project walks around the park with the receiver listening for owl signals. The signal helps the researcher to locate the owl. Once the owl is located, its geographic location is recorded, and this information is fed into a computer, with the ultimate goal of generating a map showing the range of the owl’s habitat.

The students trailed MacDonald as he tried to receive a radio signal from one of the owls, which he said often nests near the Park’s Ramble area. However, even after 45 minutes of searching for a signal, the group was unsuccessful. According to Mr. MacAdams, this is one of the down sides of all biological field research; in some settings a researcher can wait days for an animal to appear. From this, the students learned an important lesson about the pitfalls of field research.

The goal of the field trip was to give Schechter students an opportunity to see biological field research in action. Schecter feels it is important for students to recognize that not all scientific research takes place in a traditional laboratory setting with test tubes and beakers. Rather, a great deal of biological, ecological, and geological research takes place in the field. The field trip introduced students to field research methods, with a project that is taking place literally across the street from the school. (The school is located at Central Park West and 91st Street).

Dorothy Bowser, Head of School, noted, “Our school’s proximity to major cultural institutions and to Central Park, as well as the creativity of our faculty, enables us to seamlessly integrate these outstanding resources into our exceptional curriculum.”

The 11 field trip participants are part of the school’s Science Research Program, which was established in February 2002 based on a model developed by the New York Academy of Sciences and SUNY Albany. Students choose a research topic in tenth grade, and spend summers and afternoons in eleventh grade working in research laboratories throughout the City. At the end of eleventh grade, students write professional quality research papers and participate in prestigious competitions. In addition to the Science Research Program, the school plans to expand its laboratory facilities, upgrade its technological resources, and add elective courses in robotics, engineering, environmental science, and Jewish ethics and science.#

Lori Skopp is Director of Advanced Studies at the Solomon Schechter School. She was previously Director of Education at the NY Academy of Science.

 

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