Students at Rosendale Elementary name national icons
Two feathery icons spotted over the skies of Niskayuna were recently named by students at a school learning fair.
At the Rosendale Elementary School Learning Fair Thursday, March 25, students voted on the names for two bald eagles that have taken up residence in the town of Niskayuna. Rosie and `Patriot` were top picks in a vote of 177 students as a part of fourth-grader Caroline McGraw’s learning fair project.
Caroline, daughter of Town Board member Denise Murphy McGraw, said she looked for name ideas from the other students in her class.
She said she learned about the local eagles after someone sent photos of the birds to her mother, and she wanted to see them for herself. The two eagles, which are currently building a nest in Blatnick Park, were photographed by a resident and brought to the attention of the town.
Caroline said she has been interested in eagles since reading an American Girl book about them and thought they would be interesting to other kids too.
`My main point of the project was to spread the word about the bald eagles living in Niskayuna,` she said.
Students in the third, fourth and fifth grades at the school voted for male and female names from a list that included `Betsy Ross,` `Jeter,` `Ellis` and `Lincoln.` Each name had a patriotic or local significance, such as `Ellis` for Ellis Hospital, `Jeter` for Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, or `Rosie` for Rosendale Elementary.
Principal Lauren Gemmill said Caroline was able to share her own knowledge about the birds with classmates, friends and family though her project.
`It was pretty neat that this was her topic of interest and that she brought this to the awareness of students that bald eagles were nesting in our backyard,` she said.
Caroline has been able to see the bald eagles up close and personal and has gone back to the nesting area multiple times. She said she has come within 30 to 40 feet of the predatory birds.
`It was pretty cool,` she said of the experience.
Her mother said Caroline wanted to share that sense of awe through her project.
`The thing that was most important to her was spreading the word of the eagles living in our town,` she said. `That really meant a lot to her.`
Niskayuna Supervisor Joe Landry said he is happy to see the bald eagles in the town.
`We are very pleased that these majestic birds have chosen to visit our town,` said Landry, who thanked resident John DeLong for providing the photographs of the birds, which appear on the town’s Web site at www.niskayuna.org.
`Having students vote to name the eagles was a fun and exciting way to bring awareness to the eagles nesting right here in our own backyard,` said Gemmill.
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