So why not jump in head first? Let’s meet our plethora of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa). This species of invertebrate hails from the island of Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa. They usually feed on fruit and plant material which they find on the forest floor.

Our Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches chowing down on some lettuce

Here at the Houston Zoo we have so many that we can’t even name them all! We have every size…from “Teeny tiny are you a piece of shrunken carrot?” to “My oh my you could be the national bird of Madagascar!”

These cockroaches may range in size from itty bitty to a small bird, however they cannot fly like other species of cockroaches. Their main way to ward off predators is to hiss! They make this noise by exhaling air through several breathing holes. Although both males and females can hiss, only males display unique horns on the tops of their heads which make them look more impressive to other males.

A male cockroach enjoying a fruit snack

These cockroaches can also use their hissing noise to attract mates.  Can anyone say triple threat?

Here in the Education Department we love to use these inverts to bring to Adventure Classes, Critter Encounters, or on ZooMobiles. There’s nothing like engaging a group of students while simultaneously scaring the heebee jeebies out of teachers and parents!

Don't be scared, put your hand in there!

What do you think…would you touch our cockroaches?

Organization at its best!

Who says spring cleaning is just for the spring time? Over the past week the Education Department has been in a frenzy of “spring” cleaning. It has been about a week since our Summer Camp Zoofari program ended, and that means there is a massive cleanup occurring in the Brown Education Center!

In order to get ready for a fall full of programming we’ve taken on some big projects-painting, organizing, cleaning, redecorating, hauling…you name it, we’re probably in the process of doing it!

There’s no better way to prepare yourself for something new than by cleaning out the old…and the Education Department is taking that literally. We’ve taken down our temporary classrooms, reopened the exhibit hall, taken everything off of our walls in order to paint, spackled the walls, organized and put away all camp materials, cleaned our classrooms and reorganized our biofact rooms…phew! Who knew you could do all of that in just one week?

Bare walls ready for a makeover!

This process is very important, but we’re also in the midst of another important task post-camp…planning! We’ve been planning our fall programs all summer but it’s time now to start implementing those programs, writing curriculum and gathering supplies. The work sounds never-ending, doesn’t it? Well, we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it, and we certainly think it is a very important (and fun!) job to do.

 *Post makeover pictures to come in a later blog!

One of this summer's Camp Zoofari highlights was a visit to Dinosaurs!

We have been having a blast this summer.  It’s hard to believe, but we only have two exciting weeks of Summer Camp Zoofari left!  Our teachers are already starting to finish up their summer commitment, going back to their own classrooms and schools.  What has been a trickle of last days will soon become a river, and before we know it the summer-sized Education team will contract down to our usual year-round crew.  The end of camp is always bittersweet; we’re glad to have survived another busy season, but it’s sad to say goodbye to all our campers, staff, interns, and Zoo Crew.  (At least we know we’ll get to do it again next summer!)

Wild Wheels, our toddler program, returns in the fall!

We may get a brief moment to breathe when camp ends, but the Education Department never comes to a full stop.  The end of camp means the beginning of fall programs!  The planning is already underway for our school-year classes.  During the summer we focus on the 4-12-year-olds, along with our 13-17-year-old Zoo Crew.  During the year that range expands dramatically, with something for every age.  Adults, seniors, school groups and scout groups, teachers, home schoolers and preschoolers, we even have Wild Wheels for kids up to the age of 3.  I enjoy the planning aspect of this time of year; creating themes for the semester, arranging for special adventures within the Zoo, and selecting handling animals.  It can be challenging to find the time during camp, but we make it happen - you can check the program websites soon for fall information!

So as we say goodbye to Summer Camp Zoofari, we say hello to a full array of fall programming.  We’ll have a short pause to breathe - most programs start again in September – but the transition has already begun.

So today, for your entertainment, here is a PG-rated list of a dozen fecal terms:

A selection of poop samples from our Collection of Recovered Animal Poop (or C.R.A.P.) box.

Poop

Dung

Feces

Scat

Droppings

Guano

Frass

Crap

Excrement

Doodoo

Turds

#2

Do you have another word for poop? (Let’s keep it PG!)

A night tour is fun, unless it is raining or the animals are off exhibit!

One of the key characteristics of everyone in the Education Department is flexibility.  Of course, I don’t mean that we are all gymnasts.  (Although we do have two former cheerleaders and several former dancers on our team.)  I mean that the education staff are each creative enough to make it work when things don’t go quite as planned.  For every program we offer, there is at least one element of unpredicability.  

We have several on grounds programs that involve a tour of animal exhibits.  For Wild Wheels and Senior Safari, this may mean that one of the featured animals for the week is off exhibit or impossible to see.  Our Wild Winks overnights sometimes have a bigger challenge: the morning tour is before the zoo opens, and this means that every exhibit may display a cleaning keeper instead of an animal. 

Another element of programs that can turn into an element of surprise is booking.  Programs like Camp Zoofari and Safari School are individual registrations, making them a bit more predictable, but for groups that reserve programs we may end up with something different than what we expect.  For field trip programs, especially Adventure Classes, the biggest obstacle is usually number of students.  Our two classrooms are limited by fire code to a small group size, and if a school books one program for more than one class, we may end up having to change either the schedule or the location at the last minute.  Size is not the only piece that can be unpredictable; age can be as well.  We tailor our programs and curricula to the age group we expect, and if a Scout group or Wild Winks turns out to be younger or older than requested we may have to get really flexible.  

The variability of weather in Houston can also present its own challenges.  Our field research program at Texas City Prairie Preserve, Camp Zoofari, and Wild Winks are the three programs that require the most flexibility when the weather changes.  I’m not just talking about rain, either; rain we can handle.  Getting a little wet never hurt anybody.  Lightning and thunder, however, can cause some serious damage and force us to restrict our classes to the Education Building. 

ZooMobiles are a special brand of the unknown; unless we have been to a location before, we can’t predict much about the site, the setup, or even the class.  Sometimes what the group requested and what they are expecting are even different.  We’ve had programs where we were expecting to do 4 half-hour presentations and they wanted 2 hour-long programs, trips when we’ve packed to present Habitats and then have to change to Texas at the last minute, and even events where we planned for a festival table and what we ended up doing were back-to-back assembly programs! 

What a festival table should look like, as long as there's actually a table.

While there are big things that we know are unpredictable, sometimes it’s the little things that can be the biggest challenge.  I arrived once at a festival ZooMobile, which is basically a table of biofacts and a few handling animals, to discover that the event had run out of tables!  The Docent volunteer who was with me and I got out a few large biofacts to hold, and took turns handling one animal at a time.  A younger group on a Wild Wink overnight had gotten settled into the classrooms to sleep only to realize that the mounted animal biofacts that are kept in the rooms were too scary, and the whole group had to move into another room. 

The little surprises can’t be predicted, but we can prepare for some of the more common challenges.  We always include multiple animals in our planning for the “touring” programs, so even if one animal is not visible, hopefully others are.  There is spare food available for overnight programs, in case someone with a dietary restriction attends without warning.  And our biggest preparation is simply knowing that things may not go as planned, and a flexibility to make quick changes that is a key part of who we are as educators, and as the Education Department.

The Houston Zoo would like to offer a special opportunity for Houston Home School families to take part in a one of a kind wildlife conservation education program called Toad Trackers. This exciting program was made possible by a grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife, Community Outdoor Outreach Program. This program aims to teach students real world field research methods used by conservation biologists and wildlife professionals. Through the course of the class, students will be introduced to the equipment a field biologist would use in their research and some of the methods used in the scientific study of wild animal populations. Students will also learn about global amphibian extinctions and why monitoring local amphibian populations are important to detecting declines in our own region.

In the second part of the class, students will be able to apply their newly acquired skills by actively searching for real toads on Zoo grounds and weighing and measuring them under the supervision of Houston Zoo biologists!

This important information collected by students will help Houston Zoo amphibian biologists to track the toad’s movement and health on Zoo grounds!

This is a two part class, the first class is on Monday, May 24th from 1-3 pm and Wednesday, May 26, from 8-10 pm.  Space is limited.

Check out the website for more information and to register!

The Houston Zoo's very own ZooMobile!

As the month of February ended and Spring Break came near, the Education Department’s schedule filled up very quickly. It’s spring which means lots of school fieldtrips and lots of ZooMobile program requests. As an Education Specialist at the Zoo, in a 5-day week you may do 4 ZooMobiles (each could be about 5 hours long including drive time), 3 Adventure Classes and even Safari School! Phew! It makes me tired just thinking about it, but we do it because we love it, and we know that educating children about the critical nature of our earth, wildlife and natural resources is imperative. Some programs are smoother than others, sometimes things just don’t seem to go your way but you deliver the best program you can because you know the kids deserve it.

On one occasion at the end of March of this year I went on one of the most rewarding ZooMobiles I have ever been on. It was a Tuesday and I remember packing up biofacts with one of our docents, Marcia. We discussed which bird skulls to take, which cat furs and which mammal claws to pack up. It was like any other Zoomobile until we got in the van. Marcia began to tell me how this elementary school came upon having the Zoo out to their school.

She told me that the school we were traveling to is where her daughter is a lead teacher. Well, I thought, this will be great! We will have a teacher that we know to control behavior so we can focus on the teaching…but that wasn’t all. Marcia’s daughter is a lead teacher in a school made up of mostly refugees from around the world. From Ethiopia to Iran and Venezuela, there were students who came from all walks of life with very different backgrounds, and some with very sad pasts. As well as having a school made up of mostly refugees, Marcia told me that most classes were barely learning English. This, I thought, was not out of the ordinary for the Houston area, except that their native languages weren’t necessarily Spanish. Similar to the areas where they were born, their native languages spanned from Portugese to Korean and Chinese. My language skills extend to Spanish, and only short phrases in French and Japanese…at this point I wasn’t sure if the kids would enjoy themselves at all if they couldn’t understand a word we were saying!

 To my surprise, and completely to the contrary of what I had expected, the kids loved the presentations. We improvised in Spanish; we made arm gestures and acted out scenes of birds, mammals and reptiles. We touched furs and skulls and live animals and tried to explain the rest. What didn’t come across in words certainly came out in smiles, movements and sounds. It turns out the ZooMobile can be so much more than an hour long presentation about animals. Animals and an appreciation of wildlife can transcend from any language and any culture, anywhere.

Not only did the kids enjoy themselves, but they earned it. Unable to pay for the ZooMobile presentations on their own, teachers from their school applied for a grant in order to award their hard-working students with a visit from the Zoo. The grant paid off for the kids, and the experience paid off for me. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Written by Martha, Education Programs Specialist

Two of the Children's Zoo bats having a snack

Just in time for the new year, we’re starting a new program!  Maybe you’ve brought your kids to Camp Zoofari, or attended a Safari School class with your preschooler.   If you’ve ever wished there was a zoo class for you, you are in luck!

Our new Backyard Wildlife Series is for adults and teens, and offers an opportunity to learn about our native Texas wildlife, have a unique animal experience at the Zoo, make something for your feathered and furred neighbors, and contribute to conservation – all at the same time! 

Each month the class will be themed around a project.  Our first project, on January 9th, is a bat house.  We’ll discuss the bats of Texas and visit the Children’s Zoo bat colony.  And if bats aren’t your thing, we have a new project each month.  Maybe frogs, butterflies, or hummingbirds are what you’re interested in – we have upcoming projects for those critters, too!

Registration is for up to 2 people, and each pair will take home a completed project.  The proceeeds from this collaborative effort between the Children’s Zoo and the Education Department will be donated to a related Texas-based conservation organization.

If you are interested in learning more, or want to register, make sure to check out our Backyard Wildlife Series webpage.  Hope to see you there!

The plush Swine Flu from GIANTmicrobes

I should probably explain.  We currently have a booth in the exhibit hall at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching, also known as CAST.  This is the annual conference for the Science Teachers Association of Texas, and the exhibit hall is always PACKED with booths related to science teaching.  Microscopes, lab kits, text books, replica skulls, you name it, you can find it at CAST.  I even saw a bin full of plush microbes – this year’s new addition is Swine Flu. 

 My job at CAST was not actually to walk around and drool over new science books and fun gadgets, of course, although that is definitely a perk.  The Houston Zoo booth is there for two reasons – to promote our school programs and to spread the word about our upcoming Educator Day.  I do enjoy talking to the teachers that stop by our booth.  It always surprises me how far some schools will travel for a field trip to our zoo, and how many people don’t realize that our ZooMobile program will bring the zoo to them!

If you are a science teacher in the area, hopefully we’ll see you at CAST.  Our booth is in the Informal Science Education area (or, as I overheard one teacher say, the “funner side”) of the Exhibit Hall.  I already took my turn at the table, but I may ask one of my coworkers to pick up a GIANTmicrobe for me tomorrow.  Perhaps bird flu, if they have it…

Attwater's Prairie Chicken

The Texas City Prairie Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, is dedicated primarily to saving the endangered coastal prairie and the Attwater’s prairie chicken.  Over 2,000 acres have been set aside for this goal.  Volunteers work to remove invasive plants and captive-bred prairie chickens are reintroduced on the preserve.  Some of those introduced birds were hatched by the Houston Zoo! 

There is a small section of the property, however, that is not used for the prairie chickens.  Instead, it is a living classroom, set up to help educate the students of the Houston area about this dwindling habitat.  Every other week during the school year, staff from our education department meets a group of students to introduce them to the coastal prairie and to give them a taste of field research.

The TCPP adventure includes marine seining, water quality testing, bird and plant ID, and insect sweeping.  Or, as the students probably remember it, wading through the water with nets to sample the aquatic life, running chemical tests on the water, and looking at the life on land.  It usually takes at least 3 education staff members or volunteers, and today is one of my days to go.  I like to do the land activities the best (can’t pass up a chance to inspire new birders!) but I am also comfortable doing the water quality testing, too.  It should be a fun, full day.  I just hope it doesn’t rain.