Students from 3 States Earn Delaware Audubon Society’s Red Knot Awards of Excellence
Continuing a new initiative begun last year, Delaware Audubon evaluated science projects at the Delaware Valley Science Fair in April to select winners of the Red Knot Awards of Excellence. These awards recognize middle and high school students who demonstrate an interest in ornithology and/or conservation. The awards are named for a species of conservation concern that stops in Delaware each year during its spring migration (one of the longest migrations on record at more than 9,300 miles).
Anthony DiFranco of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania earned the first-place award for his project “The Effect of Human Voice Intonation on Local Avifauna Behavior.” Anthony used a LEGO 31313 Mindstorms EV3 robot to develop a program to collect ultrasonic sensor data. Using peanuts to attract birds, he ran the program with 3 independent variables (happy, angry, and neutral human voice recordings) and counted the frequency of ultrasonic sensor triggers to determine if the intonation affected bird foraging behavior, concluding that it did not have a significant impact. The award committee appreciated his creative approach to a previously understudied aspect of human-bird interactions.
Anthony Billotti of Toms River, New Jersey received the second-place award for his project “Developing an iOS Application to Determine if a Marine Species is the Appropriate Size to be Harvested.” Anthony’s project tackles a serious conservation issue (harvesting of undersized blue crabs) by providing crabbers with a user-friendly measurement method via a smartphone app. The app, which Anthony demonstrated live for the award committee, was shown to measure blue crabs accurately and consistently, providing nearly identical measurements as those obtained with calipers. Anthony believes there is potential to expand his app to include other marine species in the future.
Amber Wong of Wilmington, Delaware earned the third-place award for her project “Different Types of Bird Feed on Backyard Birds.” Amber selected four varieties of bird feed (peanuts, cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds) and recorded species-specific visits to each of the four feeders over a 16-day period. In the process, Amber taught herself to identify the various bird species using field guides. She found that the peanuts attracted the greatest variety of bird species while cracked corn yielded the highest number of total visits to the feeder. Amber was motivated to pursue this project after reading that feeders can increase birds’ survival rates.
The award committee was impressed by these students’ resourcefulness, creativity, and serious consideration of real-world conservation issues. Each student winner received a certificate, monetary award, and a one-year membership in the National Audubon Society. For students interested in competing for the 2024 Red Knot Awards, please email delawareaudubon@gmail.com for more information.