Several Mars Area Middle School students designed and created bird sculptures as part of the Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens Fairchild Challenge annual Fairchild Challenge.

The challenge, “Wonders of Wings,” asked student to use recycled materials to craft a bird, paying close attention to the intricate details of their wing structures and considering how the features influence flight patterns. Students also needed to write an essay on each bird, describing its specific flight pattern and the distinctive aspects of its wings.

Participating students included eighth-graders Olivia Airgood, Maddy Cawley, Avery Harrison, Meredith Lindsay, Mateus Morgueta and Luka Zatchey; and seventh-graders Everly Henderson, Emma Johnston, Mary Rhenish and Jackie Li.

The birds and essays will be judged by a panel through Phipps Conservatory, and, if selected may be even showcased on trees during Phipps’s “Winter Flower Show.”

Phipps Conservatory’s annual Fairchild Challenge is a free, multidisciplinary, standards-based environmental education outreach program designed to encourage students’ innate sense of curiosity about the world around them. The program empowers students to engage in civic life and to become energetic and knowledgeable members of their communities.

For more information, visit www.phipps.conservatory.org/classes-and-programs/for-educators/fairchild-challenge.