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‘Kittens with wings’

John Fedak is teaching science through those cute little owls

Photo submitted to Times Observer Owls photographed by John Fedak.

Photo submitted to Times Observer Amy Stewart holds a Saw-whet owl. Photo submitted to Times Observer Lennon Dailey with a banded owl.

Saw-whet owls are “like kittens with wings,” said John Fedak.

He’s been banding owls on the Allegheny National Forest for years. But not just owls. And not just on the ANF. Fedak, who’s taught from the elementary to the college level, has gotten students involved in all sorts of science outings that have resulted in real data being collected.

And it’s getting people involved in doing science, whether they’re accountants or research scientists by trade, that he’s passionate about.

Citizen science, according to Fedak, is for anyone.

“I’ve had students do bird banding right out here,” he said, pointing to the windows outside his classroom at the Learning Enrichment Center in Russell. He’s also had students working on milkweed planting and monarch tagging, raising trout to be released in to local waterways, Christmas Bird Counts, listening to frog calls in the spring and calling them in to the Pennsylvania Amphibian and Reptile Survey, and banding owls with him on the ANF.

The draw of being able to hold an owl, he said, especially ones that are like kittens with wings, that land on you at will and actually lean into neck scratches and make purring sounds, is enough to get most students interested.

“My goal,” said Fedak, is to change the fact that “a lot of people don’t know about science when it’s really a part of everyone’s life.” The idea, he said, is just to get people to realize that they already do science and that the next step is actually gathering the data — writing it down — and getting it to places where researchers can make use of it.

As someone who always wanted to be a researcher, Fedak said that working with students in ways that gets them interested in and comfortable with the scientific method and the idea that they can be an important contributor to the scientific research that may one day affect their lives.

“Doing science is easy,” said Fedak. “Collecting data is important. And anyone can do it. Even,” said Fedak, “if they’re not technically a scientist.”

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