Alaska Songbird Institute

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Teacher's Toolbox

ASI offers field trips in collaboration with the Fish and Game department. Our field trips are comprised of two different sections. One section with F&G focusing on the history of Creamer’s Field, and a section with ASI focused on songbirds, bird banding, and migration. To get a better understanding, you can view our virtual field trip here. 

 

Our field trips offer students a chance to see an active banding station. Classes visit our mist nets to watch a demonstration of how we capture our birds. Then, they visit our banding station and have the chance to meet our scientists, and learn about the data we collect (and why!). Frequently, classes are able to observe birds in hand- though this is variable as the nature of mist netting is unpredictable. 

 

Field trips happen in both the spring and the fall, all registration instructions and materials can be found on our field trip page.

 

ASI offers field trips for K12 students of all ages. Due to the moderate amount of walking required, our field trips are best suited to students second grade and older. For more information on what our field trips include, please visit our field trip webpage. Check out our “what to know before you go” packet for field trip start times, day-of instructions, payment information, and our inclement weather policy. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to programs@aksongbird.org

Sign Up

Please be sure to check when registration opens on our field trip webpage prior to signing up—we cannot accept registrations prior to this date.

 

  1. Check the online calendar to see what dates are available. Please remember that we only offer morning field trips and we must start by 10 am to have time for the full program.
  2. Contact us at programs@aksongbird.org to discuss availability and group size. We will update the calendar as the time slots are filled. If you see “1 class” on a specific date, there is only room for one class that day. Otherwise, we can usually accommodate 2 groups each morning.
  3. Once you have confirmed your date, please arrange transportation and confirm your estimated arrival time with us as soon as possible.

We have a variety of online resources for your students. These resources are suited for either pre-field trip preparation or post-field trip supplemental learning. For general information on birding, check out our YouTube channel. Our bird ID videos are an excellent resource for students to learn how to identify birds in the field. For information on the different species of birds at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, take a look at our online bird guide. For more advanced and specific research reports, check out our reports webpage.

We offer summer programs for students of all ages. For students 10-14 years old, we offer our Youth Mentoring program, a chance for kids to work alongside our staff and interns monitoring Tree Swallows in the field. It’s a unique opportunity for younger students to participate in real research outdoors. To learn more about the program, visit our youth mentoring webpage.

 

For students entering 7th and 8th grade, we offer a summer program called North for Science. North for Science is an immersive outdoor research and education experience. We take a cohort of students up the Dalton Highway to the University of Alaska’s Toolik Field Station. The program is offered at no cost to the students thanks to our partners. For more information on this program, take a look at our north for science webpage.

 

Lastly, we offer internships for high school students 14-18 years old. We train our interns in basic field research techniques. They work alongside our biologists, other interns, and our youth mentoring program participants. Participants receive a $500 stipend for their time. To read more about these internships, check out our high school internship webpage.

As an organization focused on ecological research and education, we remain conscientious of how our work connects to the Alaska State Science Standards and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Science Curriculum. If you’re interested in how our research and programs overlap with these guidelines, download this document: