The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Project School Visit:
St. Timothy Separate School (Mississauga)

Visit sponsored by: The New Ontario Trillium Foundation

In November 1999, we visited St. Timothy School in Mississauga with our 9-year-old female peregrine falcon "Qetesh".  Below are some comments from one of the teachers, accompanied on the right by a couple of letters from students:

On behalf of the grade 6 and 7 classes at St. Timothy School I would like to express our appreciation for having had the opportunity to enjoy your presentation about the peregrine falcon.  We were thoroughly impressed by the volume of information that was presented in 40 minutes, in a way that was understandable by all students.

As you can see from the attached copies of student responses to the presentation your program provided the equivalent of a substantial research project about endangered species and related issues such as the effect of pesticides on the environment.  It has certainly given our students a greater awareness and appreciation for the importance of protecting our environment.  It also gave us a rare opportunity to see this bird up close.

We feel this is a program which should be made available to all schools.  It provides extremely effective and efficient way of teaching environmental issues to children and successfully holds their attention for an entire hour.  Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and expertise with our students.

Sincerely,

Jolanda van Leeuwen, Grade 7 teacher
Today when we went to the presentation I really was interested about the DDT.  I never knew that it stays in a birds body and stops it from reproducing.  It was really amazing how the DDT could go through so many animals and still affect them all.

I was amazed by how fast the Peregrine Falcon could go.  it can go 300 km/hr, plus it is the fastest creature.  I couldn't believe how it protects its young if anything goes near them.

It's disgusting how people could shoot the animal and how they could kill it because they think it will harm their family.  It's unreal.

Oh well!  I though the presentation was great.  It held so much information.  The falcon was beautiful.  We were fortunate to have been invited to this presentation.

 
 

The Peregrine Falcon is a very interesting bird.  In fact, it's the fastest land animal in the world.  It only weights two pounds yet, it can fly up to 300 km/hr.  The Peregrine Falcon only lives up to 10 to 15 years but, when in captivity it can live up to 22 years old!

The Peregrine Falcon almost became extinct once because of a pesticide called DDT.  DDT was used on plants to get rid of insects.  When smaller birds ate the insects with DDT in them those birds had it then, the Falcon ate it and it got DDT.  The chemical would prevent the Falcon to produce egg shells for their babies so no babies would be born.

I thought this presentation was very educational and interesting.  It gave us a lot of information in 40 minutes, that would take a lot longer to find in a book.  So thanks to the organization.  I hope you come back soon with another animal!

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