Wild Discovery
Harding and McCombs students teach zoo guests about animals
June 9, 2006
Students from Harding and McCombs Middle Schools, recently spent a day at the zoo. But they weren’t just there to look at the animals. They were there to help educate the other guests at the zoo that day.
Students spent the day helping educate zoo visitors about the animals they saw. The kids got to choose the animal they wanted to teach people about, and got some training from the zoo staff, along with some animal artifacts to give guests a more tactile learning experience.
The opportunity for the students at the zoo came about through a grant from the United States Education Department. So Mark talked with Zoo officials about how they could use the money.
And they came up with this idea, which is a way to get the students excited about the zoo, and contribute back to the community. There are numerous other opportunities that all kids in this age range have with the zoo, but this is the first time they’ve used students as educators around the zoo. And members of the zoo hope that this experience can get the kids excited about becoming part of the “Zoo Crew”.
There were 20 students who spent the day at the zoo, and organizers hope to increase the number of students involved in the coming years.
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