How Educators Are Fostering the Next Generation of Avian Advocates

Among the many things Kelly Preheim learned in nearly 40 years of teaching: Children can’t get enough of birds. When she started incorporating avian plumage and bills into her lessons on shapes and colors, her five- and six-year-old students in Armour, South Dakota, were soon running to the window to count migrating Snow Geese and asking to skip naptime to learn more. “Kindergartners are in tune to nature already,” says Preheim, herself a birder. “It isn’t a far reach to get them excited about birds.”

From there, Preheim says, kids are eager to take action to protect birds and their habitats. Through an after-school bird club she founded, students have built nest boxes, made mud balls filled with native seeds, and contributed to a local field guide to encourage their neighbors to care about birds. 

Across the country, educators are using the power of birds to foster the next generation of wildlife admirers and advocates. This early exposure to a conservation ethos pays long-term dividends, says Maria Ojala, a psychologist at the University of Oulu in Finland: “Helping younger kids to appreciate nature is a good way to promote climate engagement later in life.”

Leading with curiosity, rather than a firehose of facts, can help engage even very young children, says Patti Darby, director of the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center Preschool in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her students spend most days outside, and instructors encourage them to use their imaginations and discover things on their own. For example, when a student notices an interesting flower on a class hike, teachers ask them what name they would give the bloom based on their observations before sharing what other people call it. Darby has found this style of teaching helps kids remember—and it’s more fun. “We all learn better when we are enjoying ourselves,” she says.

A local focus also helps youngsters make the link between animals they know and love and the bigger picture. In Las Cruces, New Mexico, students learn to connect wildlife declines to environmental issues through classes led by staff at the Asombro Institute for Science Education that highlight conservation efforts and success stories near where they live. “That’s just the first step to them becoming little conservationists,” says education director Gabriela Franco.

These programs are gaining momentum—there were around 10 nature preschools in the United States when the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center Preschool opened in 2003, and today there are around 800—but they build on a long history. Starting in the 1910s, more than 10 million children enrolled in newly formed Junior Audubon clubs launched by the national organization, including future ornithologist and Audubon education director Roger Tory Peterson. And they made a real impact. In Virginia, for example, more than 10,000 schoolchildren signed petitions that helped lead to 1912 legislation protecting American Robins. And since 1943, Audubon centers have helped kids build personal connections to birds and the natural world.

Today’s educators find that getting kids excited about conservation can also inspire adults in their communities. New York City high school students in Audubon’s urban avian education program bring their enthusiasm to the state capitol to lobby for bird-friendly practices. On New York’s Long Island, third- and fourth-graders capture beachgoers’ attention with colorful, multilingual signs encouraging visitors to “share the shore” with Piping Plovers and other beach-nesting birds, as part of a curriculum developed by educators at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center. “They’re so young and they’re doing this huge conservation project,” says education manager Julie Nelsen. “They don’t have to wait until they’re adults to be heard.”

This story originally ran in the Fall 2025 issue as “Early Birds.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.