Archive for the ‘Teacher Resources’ Category

Jan
06

New Year, New Resolutions

Posted by in Education Office,Teacher Resources

It’s that time of the year again, when we all promise ourselves 12 months of better living resolutions. While some of the most popular resolutions may be to eat better, stop an unhealthy habit, or visit the gym more often, we rarely think about improving ourselves for the benefit of the world around us.

A few days ago I stumbled upon an “educational game”  called My Garbology in an educator newsletter that caught my attention. The premise is to sort different “trash” items into several bins (reuse, recycle, compost, landfill). Pretty quick and easy, right? Well, after each item you sort you get an animated story that throws you back into reality.

Now, you may not have a chance to play this very educational game (no sarcasm there…) during your day to day routine, so let me give you some of the most alarming statistics. *BEWARE-these may cause you to punch the computer, pull your hair out, or better yet-make a NEW New Year’s resolution.

Can you see the tiny dot on the left? That's a sea turtle amidst a giant pile of marine debris. Photo courtesy of Seaturtle.org

*Americans make enough plastic every year to shrink-wrap the state of Texas!

*If you fill up a water bottle 1/4 of the way, that’s how much oil it takes to produce that water bottle.

*It takes 250 gallons of water to grow the cotton for just ONE t-shirt.

 *600 plastic bags are thrown away every SECOND in California.

 

 

Well. Those are alarming. So what?

You know what I dislike almost as much as those statistics…? A problem without a solution. So, below you can find some solutions to add to your year of resolutions.

1. With all that healthy eating you’re about to do, why not start a compost bin and use those peels and rinds for something good?

2. Plastic water bottles are a waste. Why not get a well-designed reusable one instead? Sigg is a great company that I have purchased from before…they have so many designs to choose from it’s like giving yourself, and the earth a big present!

3. Now, don’t even get me started on plastic bags. For grocery shopping, each aisle usually has canvas bags to purchase. Some stores even give you a discount for using them! For your lunchbox, why not try a reusable small bag for things like pretzels, chips, or carrot sticks. They are even dishwasher safe! And if you’re big into produce this year, try a reusable produce bag!

Reusable produce bags from the Container Store!

I encourage any of our blog readers to post about other ways they have reduced their waste/consumption. The more ideas the better!

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Nov
15

Another Successful Educator Day!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Education Office,Events,Teacher Resources

It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about summer camp and now… POOF! It’s almost December and we’ve just hosted another successful Educator Day. I’m sure most of you reading this blog feel the same way. Time just passes by, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop it!

With busy schedules, families, jobs, etc. sometimes it’s hard to make the trek out to the Zoo. So, when we have over 100 educators join us for our annual Educator Day we are thrilled! This was the case this past Saturday.

Educators from all over the greater Houston area came out to learn more about wildlife, conservation, education programs, and activities they could bring back to their classroom. In the morning, we welcomed our participants with 2 birds of prey. A great horned owl visited from Natural Encounters, and a Harris hawk came to see the Educators all the way from the Children’s Zoo!

A sneak peek at our new Teacher Tools page!

After our introduction and welcome, participants had the opportunity to pick between several tour options. These new tours (called Creature Quests) are brand new FREE resources offered to teachers.  When they visit the Zoo they can take their students on a meaningful, fun, and educational trip to several different exhibits. The Creature Quests prompt teachers to ask students further thinking questions, and are all topic specific.

In the afternoon we offered several workshops that included hands-on activities. Our auditorium was the conservation hot spot, and host to Carole Allen (Gulf Office Director of Sea Turtle Restoration and HEART) along with Rachel Rommel and Paul Crump (important members of our Conservation Department). We talked about amphibians (including the Houston Toad), sea turtles, and native freshwater turtles-all animals that need our help, right in our own backyards!

Green Sea Turtle

Needless to say, the day went well. We gave away 3 amazing raffle items which included some very vibrant paintings done by our own Kenyan sand boa, as well as HZI swag for all of Educators who participated.

I bet you’re now wondering how you can be involved in our next Educator event? Right?

Well…don’t look any further because our next event will be the Educator Overnight on Friday, January 27th from 6pm to 9am the next day. Registration isn’t available yet…but we will be sure to post it on our Facebook page (Houston Zoo Teacher Talk), our NEW teacher webpage (www.houstonzoo.org/teachers) and right here on our blog!

We hope to see you then!

 

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Oct
19

A Day JUST for Educators!

Posted by in Education Office,Events,Teacher Resources

Working in the Education Department here at the Houston Zoo gives us the opportunity to work with a variety of ages, from infants to senior citizens. One of the groups we see is educators, which is why we dedicate an entire day every fall just for them.

This year’s Educator Day is Saturday, November 12th. The event runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm and gives educators the chance to learn new animal facts, discover creative activities to use in their classroom and explore what’s new at the Zoo! We offer 3 to 6 continuing education credit hours for participants, as well as a raffle and giveaways for all registrants. The price is $20 per person and includes admission into the Zoo.

Green sea turtle-native to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico

We tailor our workshops, activities and tours to educators, so we only allow adults over the age of 18 to participate. We welcome college students studying education, administrators and teachers of all disciplines to register!

This year we will be offering three special opportunities. The first is a meet and greet to start off the morning with some of our most special birds of prey from around the Zoo.

One of our conservation workshops will be conducted by Carole Allen, the Gulf Office Director of Sea Turtle Restoration and HEART. Carole will be presenting a workshop called “Sea Turtle Conservation in the Classroom” where she will be giving educators fun craft and project ideas as well as playing a documentary about the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle.

We will also offer discounted tickets for participating educators to the Call of the Wild Speaker Series that afternoon. Dr. Douglas Smith from the Yellowstone Wolf Restoration Project will be in the Brown Education Center speaking about his experience with wildlife from 4:00-5:00pm. The event kicks off at 3:30pm with informational booths about some of our North American conservation projects. Educators who attend this speaker series can not only buy discounted tickets at Educator Day, they will also receive an additional 1.5 hours of continuing education credit hours. How could you say no?!?

Join us at the Call of the Wild Speaker Series to learn more about the Wolves in Yellowstone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration information as well as our schedule of events can be found on our website at www.houstonzoo.org/teachers. We hope to see you at the Zoo on Saturday, November 12th!

If you haven’t joined the education conversation yet, make sure to do so by becoming a fan of Houston Zoo Teacher Talk on Facebook. It’s the easiest, fastest way to keep up-to-date with all of the educational happenings at the Houston Zoo!

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Jun
03

Introducing… Martha Petre!!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Education Office,Teacher Resources

Martha gets inspected by our big male giraffe, Kiva

One of our fearless bloggers, you can always learn more about Martha from her blog bio and frequent posts.  Now you have a chance to find out even more about her!

Name: Martha Petre

Department and Title: Education – Education Programs Specialist

Job Description: I write curriculum as well as teach all of our programs. My area of responsibility includes all things teachers-educator days, overnights, career days and professional development!

Hometown: Chautauqua, NY

Favorite animal and why? Sea turtles! I was lucky enough to study leatherback turtles in west Africa during an interim session of college and ever since then I’ve been hooked on all things sea turtles!

Favorite class to teach at HZI: I love our ZooMobile and Adventure Class programs. They are structured the same however our ZooMobile program goes off grounds while our Adventure Classes are held in our classrooms here.

How long have you worked at the Houston Zoo? I started here in September of 2009.

Describe your education and experience prior to working at the Houston Zoo: Before coming to the Houston Zoo I worked at a preschool in Austin, TX. I graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, PA with a major in International Affairs and a minor in Spanish. Although my formal education may not line up with the job I have now I volunteered and interned with wildlife organizations throughout college and always knew I had to work with animals in some capacity!

What do you enjoy most about working in the EduTeer Department? Everything! I am fortunate enough to have an ever-changing job where I’m never doing the same thing on a daily basis. I also have a fabulous group of people to work with-not only are they passionate about what they do, they are funny, easy to be around and dedicated workers!

What animals do you have at home? Unfortunately I am not allowed to have pets where I live, but if I move I’ve already picked out what type of dog I would like and what I’d name him!

Tell us a fun fact about yourself: I am the youngest of 4 and the only girl. Since I am much younger than my brothers (and not as strong), I had only one thing I felt I could hold above their heads-I am the only child in the family that could become president of the United States. This certainly is not a career goal of mine but my brothers were all born in Taiwan, making them ineligible.

Martha and DeAndra (another Education Specialist) with Tupelo-our baby Asian Elephant

We’re getting near the end!  Only 2 more Specialists to go before you’ve met our entire staff!

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Nov
23

Cheetahs, Educators, Workshops, Oh my!

Posted by in Events,Teacher Resources

Last Saturday November 20th the Brown Education Center here at the Houston Zoo opened its doors to 180 teachers for a full day of workshops, on grounds tours, special animal presentations, raffles and so much more.

Each year the Education Department hosts a full day solely for educators. Just by visiting the Zoo, attending our workshops, visiting with the animals and learning more about the world of wildlife educators earned up to 6 hours of continuing education credits.

Educators walked away with this brand new African Forest cup filled with goodies

This year we had a packed schedule. We started off by giving educators our brand new African Forest cups loaded withposters, pencils, post-its and drink coupons! After receiving their swag they moved into the auditorium where our wonderful carnivore staff did a presentation with our female Anatolian shepherd Taji, and one of our male cheetahs, Kiburi. The educators oohed and awwed over Kiburi as he politely purred into the microphone (slobbering on it a little) and showing off his good side for pictures (his behind).

After the morning presentation concluded educators could attend the workshop of their choice.  We had 3 workshops going on every 45 minutes, each geared toward a specific age range (K-3rd, 4th-8th and 9th-12th). All workshops included an activity and plenty of take home materials aligned with TEKS. Some of the topics included Keeping Texas Wild, Endangered Species and Gettin’ Your Groove (focusing on animal adaptations).

At 1pm our workshops concluded and we called out the lucky raffle winners! We had large baskets to raffle off; one included a set of 9 classroom weight scales, another had a microscope kit and a painting done by our Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches and they all had Houston Zoo flare (magnets, post-its, key chains). Needless to say the winners went home happy and we were able to donate all of the proceeds from the raffle to the Cheetah Conservation Project of Botswana.

One of our large raffle baskets!

After a short lunch break we came back together to offer 3 on-grounds tours that lasted about 45 minutes. Each teacher that attended one of these tours got some detailed animal information along with on-grounds activities to use with their students when they visit the Zoo.

As you can tell, it’s a jam-packed event and we are happy to offer opportunities for educators to enjoy the Zoo while earning education credits. Our next opportunity will be an Educator Overnight on Friday January 28th, 2011. You can sleep at the Zoo, check out the animals at night and earn even MORE credits!

If this date doesn’t fit your schedule you can also request a workshop at your school with live animals through our Educator Workshop on Wheels program. And as always, if you’re interested in keeping up with the education department you can become a fan of our Facebook page called “Houston Zoo Teacher Talk”.

So if you’re an educator, college student preparing to get an education degree, or a home educator, we invite you to participate in the wonderful opportunities here at the Houston Zoo!

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Oct
08

Living in an electronic world…

Posted by in Teacher Resources

and I am an electronic girl (well, kind of).

Since I was younger my older brothers tried to push their love of video games and all things electronic on me, but I just wasn’t having it. It wasn’t until about college that I became interested in computers and their endless possibilities. These days my fascination with the ease of communication and ability to find information has led me to several new sites; specifically ones that are targeted at opening the doors of informal education.

The site that I am referring to is TeacherTube of course. Most people are familiar with YouTube, a website dedicated to sharing videos of everything from grape-stomping fumbles to how to bake a cake from scratch. YouTube, however vast it may be is not always available to those who may want to use it. Educators, specifically, have a difficult time accessing this site for educational use in their classrooms due to firewalls. Thankfully, some tech-savvy guy or gal thought up the idea of TeacherTube-a YouTube like site for educational material ONLY!

Logo by TeacherTube

The Houston Zoo hopped on board with TeacherTube several months ago when we realized one of our biggest audiences (yes you, teachers) weren’t able to watch or play our amazing footage of the animals that call our Zoo home. The videos put together by professional staff here at HZI include everything from births to training sessions, dental surgeries and beyond.

And the information doesn’t stop there. There aren’t just videos available on the site, there are also documents, photos, audio clips, blogs and more!

So, if you’re ever looking for an additional exciting supplement to your class on food chains, adaptations, habitats, behaviors (or really anything animal related you can think of) hop onto www.teachertube.com and search “Houston Zoo”. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed (and neither will your students)!

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Apr
15

Social Media

Posted by in Animal Information,Education Office,Featured,Teacher Resources

Lories don't need computers to be social, but we love social media at the Houston Zoo!

As we turn in our rotary phones for Iphones and Blackberries, and our desktop computers for Ipads and laptops, we must ask ourselves-what will be next? And what’s next for the Zoo and specifically the Education Department is social media! Now, you may ask yourself, ‘what is social media’? That buzz phrase is tossed out all over the place, but for us it offers our department a greener, more immediate way to reach a wide audience. Whether it is Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook, the Zoo is reaching out online to people of all age everyday.

 Now of course, social media isn’t for everyone. I enjoy sitting down with a newspaper and coffee as much as the next person, but as technology changes, we must change with it.  As for the Education Department, we have switched from handing out pamphlets of information to directing as many people to our website as possible. Not only do we save paper, but you may stumble upon something interesting our on website (whether that is photography, bat houses or dinosaurs) that you hadn’t previously considered. As for teachers, the Houston Zoo has started a brand new Facebook Page called “Houston Zoo Teacher Talk” that is specifically directed towards educators. Become a fan and receive updates on educator workshops, new online resources, insider tips to making your fieldtrip to the Zoo as smooth as possible, and much, much, more. 

If a more private social network suits your fancy, check out Ning. We use it to exchange ideas with our Teacher Advisory Council, but it could be used for anything from a sports team to a special interest group. Check it out-it’s user friendly and sure beats clogging your friends inboxes with emails.

Now, you won’t find the Education Department on Twitter anytime soon…I don’t think updates on how my curriculum writing is going would be the most entertaining tweet, but if it is, you can let me know.

So hop on board, become a fan, lend your ideas. Not only are we open to broadening our horizons, we embrace it!

Written by Martha, Education Programs Specialist

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