Adventures in Marine Mammal Education

Hello All!


     First of all thank the technology gods that I figured out how to set this thing up. I am notoriously bad with any and all forms of technology. Just wanted to share with you all an interesting experience I had this week with some elementary school students. As of late I have spent a lot of time educating people on rescue and rehabilitation programs for marine mammals at our park and encouraging guests to become what we like to call everyday heroes. Other zoological facilities often refer to them as conservation ambassadors as well, basically just making small changes like recycling or conserving water to help out animals and humans as well.

     I had a particularly boisterous group of elementary school children come through our manatee and sea turtle exhibit and knew I had to do something to sell them more on the animals then the really cool movie at the end. I've developed some strategies over the years for effectively describing things to people from different learning backgrounds and it was clear that these kids would not normally have the opportunity to learn about these animals outside of the classroom. I decided to do what I call a fun narration which is super kid centered with a lot of classroom comparisons, food comparisons, and some awful jokes. What I saw was amazing! Instead of rushing into the movie the kids hung back to ask me all about the animals and their injuries. Even laughing at the fact that manatees weighing over a ton are not in fact fat at all. I've had a passion for animals my entire life and no how important it is to instill that same passion in kids especially if we want them to become involved in caring about them. What I've learned from these kids and others is to simply never underestimate children or judge them. If you take the time to figure out a way to effectively communicate ideas you will get through to them.