Programme Plan: Flight and Feathers
Birds are finely tuned flying machines, with the wing and flight style suited perfectly to the environment in which they live. View albatross and other seabirds breeding at Taiaroa Head and look at how the shape of the wing is related to how the bird flies. Discuss how flight mode is related to the feeding, breeding and range of the bird. Demonstrations will illustrate how birds stay up in the air and compare the principals of flight in birds and airplanes.

Time: 2 hours Age Focus: Years 4-8
Curriculum Area: Science (Level 2-4, LW - Achievement Objectives 1-4)
Cost: $3/student, teachers and parents no charge
Time
Activity

0
Arrive, meet guide at reception
- please arrive 10 minutes early

0 min
Education Room (30 min)
- What is a bird? (comparison of bird to cat)
- How do they fly? (flapping, soaring, gliding)
- Mechanisms of flight with demonstration
- Where do they go? (different wings for different jobs)

30 min
Observatory (30 min)
- Viewing of flight (Albatross, gulls, shags)
- Identification of species and wing types with silhouettes
- Toroa – flight path
- Weighted birds – difficulties of flight

1 hr
Cliff Viewing (30 min)
- shag viewing
- gull viewing
- act out gliding & flapping flight

1.5 hrs
Education Room (30 min)
- series of activity stations to look at mechanisms of flight and how the birds are adapted for flight.
- DVD penguin and shag flight (display area)

2 hr
Wrap up (5 min)
- Reviewing learning objectives

Depart
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Contact: Royal Albatross Centre • PO Box 492, Dunedin.
Ph (03) 478 0499 • Fax (03)478 0575 Email Us