Join educators Dionné Mejía and Katie Russell to learn about bird diversity, and how birds are adapted for different habitats, diets, and lifestyles. Students will do a hands-on activity. This lesson will be taught bilingually in English and Spanish.

Dionné Mejía is an Ecological Education Program Coordinator with Oregon’s Institute for Applied Ecology. She is one of the lead instructors and coordinators for the binational Aves Compartidas Youth Education Program, which connects students in dual-language elementary schools in the Willamette River Watershed in Oregon with students in the Laja River Watershed in Guanajuato, Mexico, through migratory bird lessons, watershed education, and pen pal exchanges. Dionné also delivers science lessons to teens in juvenile detention centers, and develops curriculum for adults in custody as part of the Sagebrush in Prisons Program. Dionné obtained her B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution from the University of California San Diego. She has worked as a teaching assistant, community college instructor, after-school tutor, resident naturalist in Costa Rica, and pollinator research assistant. Dionné is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in education and a teaching credential at Oregon State University.

Katie Russell is a student in the Environmental Studies Masters program at University of Oregon with a focus on public education and nonprofit management. She has been an animal care professional and public educator since graduating from Loyola Marymount University. She was a zookeeper with the Honolulu Zoological Society and a dolphin trainer, animal caretaker, and educator with Sea Life Park in Hawaii. She has held similar positions with Dolphin Quest in Hawaii, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Los Angeles, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, and SeaWorld in San Diego.