South Orangetown Middle School students explore design, creativity with birdhouse project

South Orangetown Middle School technology teacher Louis Chugranis and art teacher Tatiana DiPierno are collaborating on an interdisciplinary art and design habitat installation project that was funded through a 2023 Rockland Community Foundation Innovative Teaching Grant. Students have been designing, building and painting birdhouses that will be installed throughout the SOMS campus.

The project aims to build awareness of suburban ecology, while providing students with an opportunity to explore design and express their creativity.

Excerpt's from the grant proposal:

"This project is intended to reveal the potential for human and wildlife interaction within the constructed environment, recognizing that wildlife can adapt and thrive in human-built conditions.

"We also intend to provide a framework for bird habitat and behavior that can help students and faculty better understand birds by direct observation ... We hope that our school community will experience the joy of our students' creativity and the inspiration of the birds and their song."

Technology teacher Louis Chugranis said the project teaches students on multiple levels.

"The kids of South Orangetown Middle School are designing and building birdhouses that we're going to install throughout our campus to provide habitat for our avian neighbors," Chugranis said.

Art teacher Tatiana DiPierno assists with the decorative side of the project.

"Some of these students are from art for public spaces, which is a club we have and we're working in joint with Mr. Chugranis' club, which is building the birdhouses," DiPierno said. "So we take the artistic end in decorating them and children are personalizing them."