The Avian Science Center’s Education and Outreach Program is multifaceted – ranging from traditional University of Montana courses to teacher training workshops to workshops for managers and research biologists to summer programs for the general public.
Through the formal science education avenue, ASC faculty and staff instruct a broad range of
innovative courses, including undergraduate courses in Ornithology, and Field Ecology, and graduate courses in Migration Ecology, Fire Ecology, and Avian Ecology, among others. The Avian Science Center also offers various “experiential learning” courses from time to time, such as Avian Census Methods and Field Methods in Avian Biology. As the Center expands, we hope to offer additional short-courses for undergraduates, graduates, and the public-at-large through UM’s Continuing Education Program.
Our work also extends beyond the walls of the University as we seek non-traditional outreach opportunities. We strive to improve scientific literacy by explaining results that have emerged from avian research and monitoring and by contributing to the ongoing discussion of what constitutes sound science. We currently collaborate with the Montana Natural History Center for our K-12 Education Program, and we assist Five Valleys Audubon with their birding workshops.
To get stewardship-relevant research and monitoring results into the hands of land owners and managers, students, the press, politicians, and the public-at-large, the Avian Science Center 
offers trips to field demonstration sites and, in the near future, we hope to combine these visits with short workshops. We also plan to periodically host professional workshops relevant to our research and monitoring efforts. Finally, we are developing an interactive component to our new web site to allow quick access to raw data, simple summaries, and more comprehensive syntheses of current research and monitoring results.
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