The classrooms are hot. The days until the final bell of the year are few. Attention spans are short.
Yet in three Baltimore middle schools, the pupils are engaged -- debating, gesturing, smiling -- caught up in a pilot program that places them on the Siberian tundra, in the farm fields and rain forests of South America and high above the Earth.
"Eye of the Falcon" is a two-week study of migratory birds that combines science and technology lessons to give pupils a better appreciation of the world they live in.
Via computer software, the youngsters are tracking a dozen Swainson's hawks along their migratory path from their breeding grounds in the U.S. Midwest, south to their winter home in Argentina. The migratory data they are using was collected six years ago by researchers as part of an effort to save the hawks from extinction.
In a computer lab at Roland Park Middle School, pairs of sixth- and seventh-graders have selected a bird to follow. Brent Robertson, 13, and Brandon Demory, 12, zero in on bird No. 96-19232, or "Falcon Foot," as they have renamed him. Nearby, Emma Call, 13, and Rachel McCandliss, 12, follow 96-19211, or "Shigen-bogen," their made-up Indian name for the bird.
They trace the migration paths, noting food sources and resting places.
"Once you get the hang of the program, it's really neat and it goes really fast," says Call. "The teachers showed us how to do it, but we get to do the work all by ourselves."
And that's the point, says Cornelia Tutschka, a second-year teacher who is leading the project.
"It's hard to stay motivated at the end of the year, writing skills, geography, math and current events.
"All children can be successful with this," she says.
In addition to working with historical data, the pupils are "real time" tracking the northward migration of four Sandhill Cranes equipped with transmitters and four similarly wired bald eagles that were saved from a Charles County gravel pit and released on Memorial Day weekend by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
"Eye of the Falcon" was developed by Earthspan, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Center for Conservation Research and Technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Earthspan was created by scientists who use technology such as satellite tracking, remote sensing and computer modeling to protect wildlife habitats and the environment.
William Seegar, the 53-year-old CEO of Earthspan, saw a way to use that same information as a teaching tool. That's how the Swainson's hawks made their way into the Baltimore classrooms.
Not too long ago, the hawks' numbers were dwindling. In California alone, the population had dropped 90 percent since the 1940s.
In 1996, scientists placed satellite transmitters on a number of hawks to track them and pinpoint the problem. They found the pesticide monocrotophos -- sprayed on crops in Argentina to kill grasshoppers -- was killing the hawks as well, sometimes as many as 5,000 birds at a time.
Presented with the evidence, the Argentine government quickly removed monocrotophos from the market.
Presented with the same facts, the Roland Park pupils are learning about the fragile ecosystem.
"We're just part of the food chain," says Brandon as he draws a map of the hawks' wintering grounds. "We need to stop the killing of birds so we don't mess up the food chain, or we could be next."
The two-week pilot program is being paid for by $171,000 in grants from the Abell Foundation and American Honda Foundation. Mapping software was supplied by ESRI of Redlands, Calif.
The nearly 300 pupils participating at Roland Park, Robert Poole and Southeast middle schools range from the city's most gifted to some of is weakest performers.
That, says Roland Park Principal Mariale Hardiman, is the beauty of "Eye of the Falcon."
"Maybe a child who's struggling in reading has an aptitude for using a computer creatively. They achieve performance and feel fabulous about their accomplishment," she says.
Seegar hopes to attract more grants to expand the curriculum to several weeks and deliver it to more schools.
"We don't want this to end up in just the high end of academia," he says.
Bonnie Legro, program officer for education at the Abell Foundation, is optimistic about the future of the program.
"Kids have a natural affinity for and a curiosity about animals. I think what this project brings is a hands-on, real-life scenario that brings nature closer to urban kids," she says. "It has definitely expanded the learning beyond what might be happening at this time of the year."
For pupils such as Emma Call, the program has made her think about the future of the planet and how she might make a difference with a career in environmental science.
"We're not the only thing on the planet, even though we act like it," she says. "This makes me appreciate Earth more. If you don't know about the earth, then you don't know anything."