Fifth-grade classes at Donegan ES headed for the school’s new outdoor classroom May 29 to enjoy what they’d spent weeks preparing for: Urban Bird Count for Kids. Sponsored by Donegan each spring, it’s the only event of its kind in the Lehigh Valley.

Supported by volunteers from the Lehigh Gap Nature Center and the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, the kids and teachers take walks through the neighborhood, noting every bird they see. Later they compile their observations, which are submitted to eBird, a database maintained by Cornell University that is used by scientists to study climate change and other subjects. The Donegan fifth-graders aren’t just bird watchers when they participate in the annual school event, fun as that may be; they are also citizen-scientists.