Members of the Mount Assisi Academy Science Club are actively involved in community –based scientific and ecological projects, including re-cycling and MAA’s Bluebird Conservation Project.

Science Club activities are designed to encourage scientific exploration through various activities.

Bluebird Conservation Project Takes Flight at Mount Assisi Academy

A student illustrates the size of one of the Bluebird nests – with several baby bluebirds nesting comfortably ‘on the Hill’ at MAA.

Close-up of MAA’s baby bluebirds.

What started out as a question for Ms. Leja’s first period Conceptual Chemistry class evolved into a successful effort to provide a place for the Eastern Bluebird, a declining species, to safely nest and reproduce offspring. The rolling hills of the Mount Assisi Academy campus is the new home of Illinois’ latest location for the Bluebird Conservation Project.

During an early spring class MAA science teacher Rone Leja asked her sophomores to do some research on the Eastern Bluebird, a species whose population has been in decline throughout the United States for several years. Ms. Leja challenged her students to discover the reasons for the decline in population and what they could do about it – and as they say, the rest is history.

The student’s research efforts led them to the Illinois Audubon Society’s Eastern Bluebird Conservation Project. As they learned about the conservation project, MAA students wondered if bluebirds had once been present on the grounds. They conducted a few surveys among the School Sisters of St. Francis of Christ the King and residents of Alvernia Manor, both of which are located on the same campus as Mount Assisi Academy.

Ms. Leja also visited Cog Hill Golf and Country Club (which is adjacent to Mount Assisi’s campus) to see if any use of pesticides could deter the nesting, birth and growth patterns of the bluebirds. During this visit she learned that Cog Hill already had bluebird houses, and has been part of the Bluebird Conservation Project for some time. Ms. Leja was put in contact with veterinarian Dr. Edward Fitch, the person responsible for the Cog Hill bluebird project, and he became a great resource for MAA students.

After completing and analyzing their work the MAA students realized that they were very interested in starting a Bluebird Conservation Project at Mount Assisi Academy. On April 22, 2008 Dr. Edward Fitch and members of the Thorn Creek Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society visited MAA to talk to Ms. Leja’s class, thus beginning in earnest MAA’s conservation efforts. The Thorn Creek Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society donated the first bluebird house to MAA, and Dr. Fitch personally built four more. One week later during their class period, members of Ms. Leja’s class, along with Dr. Fitch, installed all five birdhouses at predetermined locations on the Mount Assisi campus.

In addition to the Eastern Bluebirds, tree swallows took up residence in a few of the houses prepared for the bluebirds and within a week the students saw nests being built. It was the bluebirds that truly fascinated the students because in one month’s time, and before the end of the school year, five Eastern Bluebird eggs were ‘on the Hill’ in birdhouse number 5.

More tree swallows had also taken up residence in another house, but so too had more bluebirds. By the end of summer 2008, a total of 10 tree swallows (two nestings) and 14 Eastern Bluebirds (three nestings) were born and took flight from the Mount Assisi Academy Bluebird Conversation Project. The final examination for Ms. Leja’s class took the form of a group power point presentation put together by class members, and presented to Ms. Leja, their parents and members of the Illinois Audubon Society. According to Ms. Leja, not only did the students receive class credit for this conservation project, but also gained valuable communication, team-building and problem-solving skills. But their work did not end with the final day of class. During the summer months of vacation, students from the class were responsible for monitoring the birdhouses and recording data to be submitted to state and national organizations. They continued to do this until mid-September when the houses were taken down, thoroughly cleaned and put away until the start of the next bluebird season which officially begins in April 2009. The Eastern Bluebird is once again flying ‘on the Hill’ at Mount Assisi.

Juniors Maura Biedron and Maddie Joyce record statistics for weekly monitoring of MAA’s Bluebird Conservation Project.

Members of Ms. Leja’s class discover the first nesting of bluebird eggs of MAA’s Bluebird Conservation Project.

For more information regarding Mount Assisi Academy’s Bluebird Conservation Project, please contact MAA at 630-257-7844, ext. 22.