Posts Tagged ‘Wild Wheels’

Jul
30

The End is Just the Beginning

Posted by Leigh in Camp,Classes/Programs

Anybody else surprised at how fast the summer went?

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.

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Jul
09

Flexibility is Key

Posted by Leigh in Classes/Programs,Zoomobile

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.

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Oct
14

When the Animals Don’t Show Up

Posted by Leigh in Classes/Programs,Fun on grounds,Public Programs

Meet the Keeper Talks, Safari School, Wild Wheels, or Summer Camp, many of our programs depend on the animals exhibited at the zoo.  After all, what would a class at the zoo be without animals?  Most of the time, the animals are visible, the participants are happy, and the programs go well.  Occasionally, the animal will even be eating, moving, making noise, or just really close to us, and those moments always make the classes extra-special.

But every once in a while, the animal decides not to show up.  Maybe it has a vet appointment, or the weather is too cold, or the keepers need to do maintenance on the exhibit.   Maybe the animal just feels like hiding in the back corner and taking a nap.  Whatever the cause, it is then up to the presenter to make it work.

Giant Eland at the Houston Zoo

Giant Eland at the Houston Zoo

This was the case for my Wild Wheels yesterday.  The cassowary was our first stop, and he had come to the front just long enough for everyone to see him.  But then we got to the giant eland exhibit.  There were zebras and nyala antelope, but no giant eland.  At that point I realized that I should have stuck some zebra stuff in my cart (the zebra are almost always out) but I hadn’t and now I had to talk about eland with no eland to see.

Fortunately, I always bring a picture of every animal I plan to visit on our tour with me.  This is mostly for the littlest ones, who often have a hard time noticing an animal if it isn’t moving.  I said something along the lines of “Uh-oh, it looks like the eland are still inside” and showed the kids the picture of the eland.  I wanted to include these animals mostly because this was the stop with the best biofact: horns!  Everyone looked at the picture, felt the horns, and learned that eland are the biggest antelope in the world. Then we moved on, hoping for better luck at our next exhibit.

Against all odds, we did have luck.  The next stop was the one I was the most concerned about: the giant anteater.  Our anteaters are often not visible at all, or are moving around, barely visible, at the back of their very large exhibit.  Yesterday, though, one of our anteaters was right up at the front, enjoying a snack from an enrichment tube on the front fence.  We got to see her giant claws, her long but very narrow mouth, and the tiny nose on the end of her elongated face.  We watched her for quite a while before we moved on to a few more exhibits. After that up-close adventure, the sleeping grizzlies and placid Komodo dragon were a bit anticlimactic. 

When the animals don’t participate, it is still possible to have a teachable moment.  Depending on the group, I have used these moments to teach about animal care or to describe natural behaviors such as sleeping or hiding.  I’ve subbed in pictures or puppets for the actual animal, and for summer camp I’ve taken my class to an exhibit as many as 3 times on different days to try to find an animal.  As unpredictable as live animals can be, I wouldn’t want to leave them out of a program or stop teaching at the zoo.  Unlike a museum exhibit or a handling animal, our exhibit animals provide us with both the possibility of seeing nothing and the opportunity to see something amazing.

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Sep
11

A Stroll with Strollers

Posted by Leigh in Fun on grounds,Public Programs

We watched the lorikeets at Wild Wheels on Thursday

We watched the lorikeets at Wild Wheels on Thursday

If I asked you to list the age groups that our education programs target, you’d probably think of school-age kids, maybe preschoolers, possibly even adults.  But do you realize that we also offer programs for infants and toddlers?

I know, you’re probably thinking, “Really?  Infants and toddlers?” but the answer is a resounding yes.  During the school year we offer a program called Wild Wheels, for kids up to age 3 and an accompanying adult.  Based on our attendance, it is definitely a popular program.

We all take turns teaching our classes, and I taught Wild Wheels this week.  We talked about animals that live in trees, specifically hornbills, howler monkeys, tamarins, clouded leopards, and fruit bats.  For each program we tour the zoo, looking at the animals that fit the day’s theme and interacting with biofacts like feathers, skulls, and puppets.  We finish up in the BEC, with books and toys and a live animal to touch.  This week we met a dove up close and personal. 

We cover each topic for a week, once on Tuesdays and once on Thursdays.  As Wild Wheels is a program you can register for on the day you attend, I never know how many to expect until we start.  On Tuesday, I had 11 adults and 13 kids, but on Friday I only had 3 and 3.  It is very different, teaching 24 vs 6!  It is a fun class no matter how many we have and the kids seem to enjoy it.  Of course, how much they get out of it depends a lot on how old they are, but smiling babies and laughing toddlers are clearly enjoying themselves.  The adults usually enjoy themselves, too!

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