Ornithology is the scientific study of birds, or more commonly known at Scituate High School as “a Maguire class.” Approximately 90 SHS students take this course each spring. Scituate is one of three public high schools in the entire nation to offer a full sixteen-week, semester-long Ornithology program. Springfield, Massachusetts, and Gilroy, California, also offer comprehensive high school programs. SHS science department chair Kathy Elich explained that the class is financially supported through grants provided by Scituate High Opportunities and Resources for Education (SHORE). The money goes toward purchasing equipment, such as binoculars and scopes, to enhance the experience of the class “birding trips.”

Thanks to science teacher Steve Maguire, students have fallen in love with Ornithology. Senior Emily Blanchard shared her insight on the class and how it has given her a new perspective on nature: “Before I would walk down the street and birds were just background noise. Now I notice their real impact on the environment around me every day.”

Blanchard explained that Ornithology is “one of the first classes I’ve been in where students are outwardly passionate about seeing the real world.”

During “offsites,” a favorite activity in the class, students join Maguire at outdoor locations around Scituate to get real-world experience. These offsites bring a new level of engagement to learning. Additionally, students have the freedom to explore outside of a traditional classroom setting. Students consider his experience to be more educational than studying a PowerPoint presentation in class. Maguire’s passion for teaching ornithology is matched by his students’ passion for hands-on learning and interacting with nature.

Birding since he was four-years-old, Maguire said, “My father used to bring me out to the bird feeders as a kid, and I would memorize the field guides on my own.” He decided to pursue the elective at the high school level to build a community of birders. “Making it a class, I would get other people as into it as I was.”

Next year, the SHS science department will be offering an honors version of the ornithology course. Maguire revealed that the new course will be fairly similar while including more in-depth biology aspects of ornithology. He explained that the course will have “more about the biology of birds and what makes them what they are.” Elich anticipates an increased interest in the course due to the availability of honors credit.