A Classroom Experience Your Students Will Remember

Instead of looking at a picture of a blue-tongued skink’s crazy colored tongue, lecturing about difference between a chinchilla’s fur and a frog’s skin, or watching a video about the way an alligator is adapted to be a water predator, why not bring your class to the zoo to experience 45 minutes that your students will surely talk about for days? The zoo is currently offering six different hands-on animal demonstration classes for students preK-5.  These classes are the perfect opportunity to enrich any life science lesson.  Every class, held in the Harold C. Schott Education Center, is designed with content vocabulary, hands-on activities, and at least three live animals the students will get to touch!

Our classes for the 2011 School Year Include:
• Fur, Feathers, Scales (PreK – 2) – Younger students learn how to determine if animals are mammals, birds or reptiles based on body coverings.
• Adaptations (PreK – 2, 3-5) – Adaptable for younger or older students, this program introduces several unique live animals and explores their adaptations related to survival.
• Life Cycles (K – 2, 3-5) – Adaptable for younger or older students, live animals are used to show the different ways that wildlife goes through life cycles.
• Inquiry: Are Animals Picky Eaters? (K – 5) – Students learn how to ask introductory investigative questions about the world around them and conduct a simple experiment involving live animals. Tailored to the age group.
• Food Chains ( 3-5) – Bring food chains to life while learning how living things get energy to survive, as well as how they may be affected by changes in the environment.
• Living Dinosaurs ( 3-5) – Discover ancient adaptations and relationships that today’s animals have in common with dinosaurs.
At the conclusion of each state standard aligned animal demonstration, your students will be roaring to explore the zoo in a new way. Warning: Zoo classes may cause extreme excitement about learning!

To get all the details on animal demonstration classes, check out http://cincinnatizoo.org/education/schools-teachers/visit-the-zoo/school-classes-at-the-zoo/animal-demonstrations/ and be sure to check out the Service Learning Discount to really get your students involved!