Engineering Explorers

“What are you doing?” asks four-year-old Declan, who has been watching me with growing curiosity as I measure out a distance of eight feet in our outdoor play space and mark the distance with two rocks from our rain garden.

“Well, you know how we have been watching that Eagle-Cam?” I answer. “I did some research, and I learned that an eagle's nest is about eight feet wide. That seems like a pretty big nest! But I'm not very good at understanding how big something is if I don’t 'see' it. So I'm going to build a circle of rocks to get a better sense of what a typical eagle's nest looks like. Do you want to help?"

Declan and his friends jump at the chance to "build" an eagle's nest and begin to add rocks until we have a circle that is eight feet in diameter.

Living along the Mississippi River, we are blessed with the return of our beloved bald eagles each winter and spring. From December to March, these magnificent birds migrate south from Canada and often make their winter home in our area. Some eagles like it so much that they settle here permanently.

Each winter, the eagles return to their nests to prepare for the hatching of the eaglets. Eagles reuse their nests year after year, especially if they have successfully raised their young in those nests.

The birds continue to work on their nests each year, cleaning out debris, making repairs, and expanding the nests so that very old nests sometimes become enormous. According to the American Bird Conservancy, eagle nests can become so large and unwieldy that they topple the trees they're built in.The largest bald eagle nest ever recorded was 9.5 feet in diameter, 20 feet deep, and weighed almost three tons!

Eagles nesting in our area typically lay their eggs in mid-to-late February. The eggs hatch by mid-to-late March. Once the eggs have hatched, the female stays with the eaglets while the male forages for food to feed his family.

A number of webcams have been set up in our area so that we can watch the life cycle of the eagles playing out in front of our eyes. This is where I struggle. We are a screen-free environment, but the webcam has opened a window onto a world that would otherwise remain hidden from our early learners. We love learning about our local eagles and getting a close-up view of life in an eagle's nest!

When an eagle brings a large fish to the nest, we are spellbound. But the fact that we are being sucked into spending time staring at a screen contradicts my core beliefs about early education. So, on this unseasonably warm January day—when five-year-old Asa declares that we need to add sticks, branches, and leaves to make it a "real" nest—building our own eagle's nest seems like the perfect "hands-on" solution to my educator's dilemma.

Now we are learning, creating, and analyzing! We are taking the knowledge that we gained during our screen time and translating it into a real-life, hands-on learning adventure that introduces engineering design through play!

When children design and build their own eagle nests, they are developing a variety of early childhood STEM skills. The process of creating a nest involves problem-solving, creativity, communication, and teamwork while fostering a deeper understanding of nature, engineering, and how the world works.

During our nest-building project, we read some books about eagles. We learn that a mature eagle has 7,000 feathers and a wingspan of 6-8 feet, weighs up to 15 pounds, and has vision so keen that it can see the print on a newspaper at a distance equal to the length of a football field. These are the details that young children are most likely to absorb.

We also learn that bald eagles are most active from sunrise to 11 a.m. when they feed along the open waters of our locks and dams. This feeding schedule coincides quite well with our outdoor times. Lucky for us, the eagles don't return to their roosting areas until the afternoon.

After lunch, story time, and a rest, the boys return to their newly built eagle's nest. They have been playing there for a good long time when, up in the sky, an eagle appears!

“Look!” cries Declan, the first child to spot the bird with his own "eagle eyes."

Yes, it's a  real live eagle! Would she think this was HER nest? The boys are beside themselves with excitement. Then another thought occurs to them: Could she see the boys sitting in HER nest?

As they contemplate the possibility of the eagle swooping down and landing amongst them, they scramble out of the nest in pure terror!

Fortunately, the eagle does not land in our nest. But our little learners are so frightened that they vow never to return. I leave the nest in place for more than a week, and some of the younger children play in it occasionally. But the nest's original engineers and architects keep their distance.

I often notice that children are most engaged during the building phase of any project—when they are collaborating, creating, adding, subtracting, analyzing, and evaluating with friends.

This is the good stuff that happens when we introduce just a little bit of technology to ignite the imagination and then give children ample time to engage in deep, investigative learning.

Take time to follow the lead of your early learners and see where their interests and curiosity take you. Then check off your early learning standards one by one!

Looking for some early engineering adventures? Check out our "Building a Sturdy House" lesson plan. Building a home or an animal habitat will enable your engineering explorers to tap into the joy of learning through hands-on play.