A group of students collecting data
Urban environments are filled with a suite of anthropogenic noise. One recent study found that small songbirds (Parus major) breeding within the Dutch city of Lieden sing at a higher pitch than those in quieter rural locations (Slabbekoorn & Peet 2003). The study was elegant, simple and ripe for repeatability by student scientists. This project takes advantage of this opportunity to apply hands-on techiniques for physics education.
The bioacoustics project includes a classroom component, a field-based component, and a web-based component. In the classroom component, students will (1) learn the basic physical and ecological context of bioacoustics, (2) develop a working knowledge of bioacoustics software, (3) understand the fundamental technical aspects of field sound recording and (4) develop hypotheses with respect to animal communication that can be tested experimentally. Students will be given access to RAVEN, a bioacoustics analysis software package developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This program has the advantage of both analytical potency and ease of use for students new to the quantification of bioacoustic data. Students in the field-based component will
- locate appropriate sites for field recording
- record bird songs and background noise around their school and
- examine the habitat and ecology of the birds in their neighborhood
