OUT OF AFRICA

Wilkinsburg Middle School students joined a team of Pittsburgh Zoo researchers working on North America’s first successful African Elephant Breeding Program. The teens recorded and analyzed elephant vocalizations and behaviors. What’s more, they met the challenge of designing an elephant collar fitted with a radio. This is allowing them to study how vocal communications develop between an elephant calf and its mother. It was the very first study of its kind anywhere.

FLIGHT OF FANCY

The Red Siskin is an endangered bird native to South America. Its future is in the hands of 22 teenagers from Columbus Middle School who work cooperatively with the National Aviary and the American Federation of Aviculture. The students study ornithology and aviculture and ways to increase the population of the Red Siskin in the wild. This three-year project joins the Pittsburgh students with young counterparts from Venezuela and Trinidad. The outlook for the Red Siskin species is brighter and so are the grades of participating students.

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