Dought and the Education Department in our usual form

The Education Department was fortunate enough to have Dought Nkomo from the Painted Dog Conservation Project in Zimbabwe visit with us for a week. When we knew he would be spending time with us after working with the Facilities Department it was time to pack his schedule FULL of fun, educational Houston Zoo experiences.

Dought came over to our department from March 18th-March 24th. Over the course of the week he experienced many of our programs. The first day we took him around the Zoo to show him how some of our on-grounds tour programs work (Wild Wheels, Senior Safari, etc.) he even got to go on one of our Wild Wheels programs!

Dought and Elizabeth holding Makobe-a leopard tortoise after Wild Wheels

That same day he received a one-on-one training in Interpretation Skills from our Senior Education Specialist. As we do with anything we celebrate, we decided to have a potluck lunch to welcome Dought on his first day. Unfortunately he was feeling a little under the weather from all of the travel and new food so we kept it simple-corn casserole, mac and cheese, rice-the basics.

Dought then got to visit with our Wild Winks specialists and learn what we do during our overnight programs. Learning about this program was of increased significance since the kids sleep over at the Bush Camp in Zimbabwe for 4 nights.

Our ZooMobile program is one of our most well-known educational programs, and we thought it would be fun for Dought to tag along on one. He went with an Education Specialist to Lonestar College to teach college freshman about adaptations. He also spent some time with Bennett-our Interpretive Programs Supervisor to learn about theatrical programs on Zoo grounds (Story Safari, Zooper Challenge, Zoo Adventures).

Dought and DeAndra on a ZooMobile with a volunteer docent-Bonnie

Finally, we wrapped up his visit with a trip to the Texas City Prairie Preserve, a free field trip that we conduct on land owned by The Nature Conservancy. This program is very similar to the Bush Camp program in that kids study a local ecosystem from the bugs to the water and develop an appreciation for declining flora and fauna in the area. Dought had the chance to sweep for Texas insects, go seining in Moses Lake, learn the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken mating dance and test the quality of water in the brackish habitat. He said he really enjoyed seining and that he usually doesn’t like water because he can’t swim (Zimbabwe is a land-locked country) but he walked along the bank and used a net to catch some fish!

Dought and Bennett conducting a Zooper Challenge in the Children's Zoo

At the end of his stay Dought took home certificates to certify that he completed training in Community Outreach, Interpretation and Curriculum Design and Instruction. PHEW…not bad for a week! We hope Dought enjoyed his visit as much as we enjoyed having him here. It’s not every day you get to learn from such a well-spoken, friendly and knowledgeable conservation hero. It seems as though he learned quite a bit from his visit to Houston, but he may never know how much we learned from him.

To learn more about Painted Dog Conservation visit our conservation website: http://www.houstonzoo.org/painted-dog-conservation/ or visit the PDC website: http://www.painteddog.org/.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about Dought and Xmas you can read more about them on our main Zoo Blog and Conservation Blog: http://www.houstonzooblogs.org/zoo/ or http://houstonzooblogs.org/wildconservation/.

We're playing a fun sorting game with the spots of different cats!

It may not feel like it outside, but spring has arrived in the Education Department.  At least our spring programs are here!  Safari School was scaled back a bit in the fall but we are excited to say that it has returned full-force for the spring.  What is Safari School, you ask?

Great question!

Safari School is a program for our preschool-age friends (3 to 5 years old) and their favorite adults.  Each week we focus on a different animal.  The class includes a short, kid-friendly lesson, an animal-related craft, and an animal visit, as well as a variety of other fun activities.  Depending on our topic, the visit might be an animal coming to the classroom or a trek out into the Zoo to see the animal in its exhibit. 

Making a cool leopard craft by adding spots!

For spring, Safari School returns to a twice-weekly schedule; the same topic is offered on both Wednesday and Saturday.  We have some cool animals coming up this semester, including chimpanzees, parrots, porcupines, and otters.  Want more information?  Check out our website!

Taking a class at the Zoo this spring sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?  Even if you don’t have a convenient preschooler to accompany you to Safari School, we have lots of other classes kicking off in February.  Wild Wheels for kids up to age 3, Senior Safari for adults 65 and up, Home School Series classes and Wild Winks overnights are all available this spring.  We’re even hosting our first annual Teen Career Conference in February!  Explore our Education page for more information about all of our exciting programs.

A paper bongo hiding in a forest of bamboo pieces

This week’s Safari School was all about bongos.  (The animals, not the drums.)  Even though we had a small group on Wednesday, it was a fun class and the kids learned a lot.

Bongos are very large but very secretive antelope.  It’s amazing to think of something that big disappearing into the African rainforest, but they can and do on a regular basis.  In class we learned how the stripes on a bongo’s back help it to camouflage with the trees around it.  The students even had a chance to hide a paper bongo in a jungle of bamboo that they created!

We currently have three baby bongos at the Zoo, so of course an exhibit visit was in order.  Before we did that, we created our very own bongo horns out of toilet paper tubes to wear on our walk.  I wore mine, too, although I don’t think the bongos were impressed.  The kids sure thought it was funny!

Wish you’d been able to join our bongo class?  If you know a preschool student between the ages of 3 and 5 who would love a class like this, check out our Safari School page.  Next week are the last classes for fall, and we’ll be learning about turtles, making a turtle craft, and even meeting a live turtle visitor in the classroom!  And if you miss turtles, well, we have a whole new set of animals to learn about in the spring, including flamingos, okapi, and red panda.  Hope you can join us!

Koi at the Zoo

On September 16th and 19th, the Houston Zoo’s Safari School program will be focusing on these amazing animals.  Bring your toddler with you for an hour long program during which we will learn about koi, meet a fish up close in the classroom, create our very own painted fish prints, and feed the koi residents at the Reflection Pond.   So swim on over to the zoo and join us!