COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some Midlands students are doing their part to help stop habitat loss and potential bird extinction. It's part of a decade-long Heyward Career and Technology Center project in Richland School District One.
Mr. Frank Gilbert's construction class is hard at work.
"You're moving around, cutting stuff, just making sure you get stuff done in here," construction student Qweshion Myers said.
The call from the South Carolina Wildlife Federation: To build 60 bird houses for screech owls, wood ducks, and eastern bluebirds -- all bird populations at risk of extinction or habitat loss.
"We have to take care of this earth. We live here," Frank Gilbert, one of the construction teachers, said.
According to the Federation, over 60% of these birdhouses are used year after year, with hopes of that percentage flying higher. The students love the project.
"You can build a lot of different things in construction that can help the environment," construction student Ronald Morant said.
"Probably building the boxes. Really, like nailing them together. I know we do a lot of cutting and whatever, but I really like the nail," another student, Anthony Barajas, said.
And although the focus of the project is building and construction, students are learning much more than that.
"Grabbing ahold of this, it leads them into what they might really want to do, even if it's not construction ... motor skills, communication skills, learning leadership skills, things that are going to actually get them a job," said construction instructional assistant Ray Pierce.
These construction teachers said that once the birdhouses are finished, students will be able to take a field trip to see them installed by the Wildlife Federation at Congaree National Park.