Improving a Field Trip to a Zoo, Aquarium or Museum
This article is intended for teachers who want to take their students to a zoo, aquarium or museum (ZAM). As a teacher, do you find yourself hoping - with fingers crossed - that students will retain some knowledge after viewing the exhibits and reading the signs? If this is the case, then these tips can help you. You need not follow all of these suggestions; any one or any combination will improve your students’ experience.
1. Define your goal(s). Know exactly why you want to take your class to the ZAM. For example, in class you may be covering an ecology education unit that deals with the concept of animal survival needs and adaptations different species use to meet their needs. Your ZAM trip may then represent a supplement to reinforce this concept. Other goals might include studying animal behavior or conservation or diversity or food chains.
Furthermore, decide if the trip’s focus will be to acquire knowledge, promote appreciation or enhance research skills or perhaps be some combination of these.
2. Consider reducing the ZAM tour to accomplish your goal. In order to have a successful ZAM trip you do NOT need to tour the entire ZAM. You can sacrifice quantity for quality. If the trip really motivates your students, then hopefully they will be able to encourage a family member to take them back. Armed with more knowledge and interpretive skills, the students may find a follow up visit to be even more educationally enriching.
1. Define your goal(s). Know exactly why you want to take your class to the ZAM. For example, in class you may be covering an ecology education unit that deals with the concept of animal survival needs and adaptations different species use to meet their needs. Your ZAM trip may then represent a supplement to reinforce this concept. Other goals might include studying animal behavior or conservation or diversity or food chains.
Furthermore, decide if the trip’s focus will be to acquire knowledge, promote appreciation or enhance research skills or perhaps be some combination of these.
2. Consider reducing the ZAM tour to accomplish your goal. In order to have a successful ZAM trip you do NOT need to tour the entire ZAM. You can sacrifice quantity for quality. If the trip really motivates your students, then hopefully they will be able to encourage a family member to take them back. Armed with more knowledge and interpretive skills, the students may find a follow up visit to be even more educationally enriching.
3. Do a pre-trip visit before bringing your students. This is time well spent! A pre-trip visit will give you the opportunity to decide on what areas of the ZAM will help you to achieve your educational goals. It will also help you to prepare the lesson, and enable you to manage your trip time.
When I wanted my students to learn about animal behavior at a local zoo, my pre-trip visit allowed me to decide which exhibits had the best chance of demonstrating animal activity and behavior (e.g., baboon grooming one another, gorillas caring for young, prairie dogs communicating above ground), as well as determine if exhibit signs might help them with their analysis. Another time, my goal was to have a group of elementary school students compare the adaptations of herbivores from different ecosystems. The pre-trip visit focused on learning which ecosystem exhibits (e.g., African savanna, desert, grassland, aquatic habitat) would have herbivores actively moving about so they could be studied.
4. Carefully construct the activity(ies) that will address your goal and prepare a guide-book that will help your students with their study.
When I wanted my students to learn about animal behavior at a local zoo, my pre-trip visit allowed me to decide which exhibits had the best chance of demonstrating animal activity and behavior (e.g., baboon grooming one another, gorillas caring for young, prairie dogs communicating above ground), as well as determine if exhibit signs might help them with their analysis. Another time, my goal was to have a group of elementary school students compare the adaptations of herbivores from different ecosystems. The pre-trip visit focused on learning which ecosystem exhibits (e.g., African savanna, desert, grassland, aquatic habitat) would have herbivores actively moving about so they could be studied.
4. Carefully construct the activity(ies) that will address your goal and prepare a guide-book that will help your students with their study.
Approach 1 - Develop one or more research questions.
With this approach, you will be creating a science inquiry investigation. Your students will be challenged to formulate a hypothesis for each question and collect data from their observations to determine if their hypothesis will be accepted or not.
With this approach, you will be creating a science inquiry investigation. Your students will be challenged to formulate a hypothesis for each question and collect data from their observations to determine if their hypothesis will be accepted or not.
Example
Do the herbivores (or carnivores) in ___________________ (name the exhibit) demonstrate similar or different adaptations for meeting their survival needs - acquiring energy and nutrients, obtaining other resources, avoiding being killed by other organisms, staying within a zone of tolerance to avoid environmental extremes and reproducing? Tables can be set up as illustrated below for each adaptation category in order to acquire data. Many additional characteristics can be added to the table.
Exhibit: African Plains
Alternatively, your students can make labeled drawings for each animal with prompts at the top of the page (e.g., include body color, the animal’s covering). Their zoo research booklet should include a discussion section so that students can fill in their answer to the question, and explain their data. For example, the zebra’s black and white stripes may help to break up the outline of the body, making it harder for a predator like a lion to see the zebra. Students may need to use some library references to help explain all of their observations.
With very young students, I reduce the complexity by having them simply make drawings of the animals and then use different colored circular stickers to label the adaptive body part for specified survival needs. At the zoo, I use the reptile house, bird house and various mammal exhibits. At the museum, I use different exhibition halls and at the aquarium a variety of ecosystem-based exhibits.
Approach 2 - You may prefer not to develop research questions. However, you should still prepare a booklet to help your students focus critically on and interpret the exhibits. Do NOT just have them copy signs.
While you may have to make your own booklet, first inquire of the ZAM education department if they have any resource material you can use/purchase. When I work with really young students or students who have emotional or educational difficulties, I often prepare a ZAM Bingo Game to facilitate learning. To set these up you absolutely need to do a pre-trip visit. For example, I worked with a group of teachers who wanted their young students to tour the entire aquarium and have fun while building their powers of observation, discovery and appreciation. Below are some of the challenges I included in 25 cubicles of an Aquarium Bingo Game that I prepared for these 2nd and 3rd graders.
- Touch a horseshoe crab
- Learn what size prey piranhas can eat in several minutes
- Hear a swimming mammal
- Find a herbivorous mammal living in a fish tank
- Count at least 4 eels hiding in the rocks
- See a penguin eating
- Say hello to a flightless bird
- Free space (center)
- Find an aquarium tank with at least 8 different colored fish
- Identify 2 reasons why the sharks do not eat the fish in the big tank
- See a school of fish
- Touch a starfish
Scoring the Bingo Game
If your students are going to conduct detailed research investigations at certain ZAM exhibits, bingo games can be used as a vehicle to focus their observations and discoveries as they move through the ZAM to their study sites.
5. Consider a Behind the Scenes tour. Contact the zoo or aquarium and ask if they provide this service. If so, what are the themes, cost and class size limitations for a trip? Furthermore, find out who conducts the tour. It should be someone (educational staff, docent) who has experience teaching students at the age level you will be bringing. Such tours can be a wonderfully enriching educational experience.
6. Do your homework about the best day and time. Call the ZAM (e.g., Education Department) and get their recommendations about when they may not be too crowded. However, if a lot of school groups are expected, get there early and move quickly to your study sites. Crowds tend to move slowly from the entrance toward the other areas.
In summary, consider doing a little but doing it very well. Do not rely on just the presence of live or stuffed organisms and signs to accomplish your goals. With some focused preparation on your part, you can make the trip an educational and enjoyable experience your students will never forget.
5. Consider a Behind the Scenes tour. Contact the zoo or aquarium and ask if they provide this service. If so, what are the themes, cost and class size limitations for a trip? Furthermore, find out who conducts the tour. It should be someone (educational staff, docent) who has experience teaching students at the age level you will be bringing. Such tours can be a wonderfully enriching educational experience.
6. Do your homework about the best day and time. Call the ZAM (e.g., Education Department) and get their recommendations about when they may not be too crowded. However, if a lot of school groups are expected, get there early and move quickly to your study sites. Crowds tend to move slowly from the entrance toward the other areas.
In summary, consider doing a little but doing it very well. Do not rely on just the presence of live or stuffed organisms and signs to accomplish your goals. With some focused preparation on your part, you can make the trip an educational and enjoyable experience your students will never forget.
Credits: Blindfolded Students (Dennis J. Gemmell) / Students in Museum (Fuse)
Blindfolded children counting the number of bird calls they heard in a hummingbird exhibit.
A trip to a zoo, aquarium or museum can be a rich educational experience that challenges students to make observations and use critical thinking skills to interpret their data.