This was such a valuable learning experience and there are so many connections between what I learned a the institute and other curricular areas I teach. It was a great balance between being indoors and learning and then applying what we learned in activities outdoors. Every activity we did from the outdoor activities and nature walks to mapping and the coloring book work were enjoyable and valuable. I went to school on Monday and could put ideas into action right away and without a lot of preparation ahead of time. I shared my learning and ideas for classroom activities with my team and those ideas fit in so nicely with our curriculum so it felt seamless. The coloring book is user friendly for my first and second graders because the color by number gives them a pretty accurate look at what the birds actually look like and it would make it quite doable as a research tool. McColl Pond was a great venue for the institute as well. Having three different biomes and the bird feeders gave us ample opportunities to study a variety of birds, habitat, and feeding. What a treat it was to also be able to build a nesting box and a suet feeder! After the second day of the institute, I walked away with the ability to provide authentic experiences for my students, the ability to get started right away feeding and housing birds, and the curiosity to keep learning more.