Part of the Houston Zoo’s mission focuses on education to inspire future generations to become leaders in conservation. To help fulfill this mission, the Zoo was fortunate enough to receive a very generous donation from BG Group, a natural gas company with a significant Houston-based workforce, to provide a new TEKS-based, citizen-science, poster curriculum to 4,500 third graders in the Greater Houston area.
This poster curriculum assists educators in teaching their students the basics of water and wetland conservation and preservation through a series of interactive classroom lab activities. Students also learn about the various animal species (wood frog, Houston toad, Attwater’s prairie chicken, and American alligator) that call both the wetlands and the Houston Zoo home.
“BG Group is proud to support critically needed, science-based education that will help students when they become the next generation of stewards of our world,” said David Keane, VP of Policy & Corporate Affairs at BG Group. “By actively engaging and teaching students about conservation, the Eco-Learning Lab proves that students can have fun while they learn.”
“Within the Houston Zoo Education Department, we strive to ignite in all people a passion for learning and conservation,” said Chance Sanford, Director of Education at the Houston Zoo. “We hope that through the interactive labs taught in the classroom and the reminder that the poster provides, students who participate will go out and initiate some small changes in their lives that help to preserve and conserve wildlife and wild places for generations to come.”
On the morning of May 27, 188 excited elementary and middle school students arrived at the Zoo. Katie Bennett of BG Group and 15 BG Group staff volunteers also came to the Zoo to help our Education staff with one of the Eco Learning Labs and see our partnership in action.
The day began with a 20-minute interactive presentation by some of the Zoo’s Education staff. It included an introduction to more Zoo animals that call the wetlands home and a discussion of the ways students could use conservation techniques at school and at home. The children were then treated to a meet and greet with one of the Zoo’s animal ambassadors: a baby American alligator. Finally, before heading out to explore the Zoo, the students were given a set of LaMotte water testing kits to put into practice all that they had learned about water conservation.
We want to thank BG Group for their continued partnership with the Zoo and for helping us to reach out to these local children. Together, we are working to inspire the next generation of citizen conservationists!
