Hypancistrus
Strolling the yard
I've been meaning to solicit advice on this for some time. Due to some inadequate staffing in our department at school, and my background and degree, there is a fairly good chance that my schedule will be redone next year. This will give me standard level aquatics classes, which are for juniors and seniors, and one or two GT level animal behavior classes for our magnet students. In Baltimore County, a magnet school is one that specializes in a given subject and draws students from all over the county. We are the magnet school for environmental sciences. So the students I have in the animal behavior class would not only be the highest level, academically speaking, but would also be very interested and excited about the subject.
As it stands now, the person who teaches the 10th grade magnet animal behavior class has the students purchase a pet and care for it over the course of the year. I have been down to see the operation, and even donated an animal to a group for the year-- Pippen, my painted turtle. I am not fond of the methods employed by the current teacher for several reasons.
First, he has no set requirements for what types of animals the students can obtain. I have seen students use the class as an excuse to purchase a bearded dragon. I do not personally think it is good for a 15 year old to purchase a bearded dragon in the name of school because two years from now, the student will be off to college and MOST dorms and apartments will not allow said dragon. This means the parents will become responsible for the animal they may not have wanted in the first place ("But mom! I HAVE to have it for my CLASS!")
The second thing that I don't like is that the teacher doesn't seem to guide the students at all in appropriate care. He allows them to research using the internet. As we all know, some sources are better than others. When Pippen the painted turtle was brought back to me, his heat lamp was gone. When I asked the teacher about it he said the group might have traded it to another group for something. So my poor turtle went God knows how long without heat in a cold building (the kids told me he hadn't been eating well-- wonder why?)
If I take this class over I will be revamping the entire program. The students look forward to it because they get to work directly with animals, and so I'd like to keep that aspect going. I have enough critters of my own that I could really do this without the kids having to buy their own pet. What I was thinking of doing was making a rotation schedule where every 3-4 weeks, a group would get to care for a "typical" animal of a given group. I would bring in one good example for each group (i.e. lizards, snakes, insects, small mammals) and the students would have to research the animal and write their own caresheet about it, and then maintain it for a 2-3 week period. I'd pick the best "pet" species for that group for the students to maintain. This would allow them to gain experience in researching and caring for a pet without having to burden their families and their futures with their own pet.
I was thinking about possibly breeding Mongolian gerbils or another small mammal species that has a short life span so that students who really wanted to take a pet home could do so without jeopardizing their college plans and causing stress on their parents. Gerbils would be ideal for this-- theyare easy to care for and only live 2-3 years, so for the most part they would die a natural death prior to the students heading off to college. This would also give students experience with mammalian reproduction and behaviors associated with it.
I would also bring in some of my larger animals every other week, like Carlos the BCI, Dingo the Woma python and our new Sulcata, Lucy, to talk to the students about the challenges of caring for some of the larger more exotic species.
I think this would be a really good opportunity to teach teenagers about the responsibilities of caring for a captive animal. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and suggestions for the class. What would you like to see taught to 15 year olds about pet keeping, the reptile industry, etc?
As it stands now, the person who teaches the 10th grade magnet animal behavior class has the students purchase a pet and care for it over the course of the year. I have been down to see the operation, and even donated an animal to a group for the year-- Pippen, my painted turtle. I am not fond of the methods employed by the current teacher for several reasons.
First, he has no set requirements for what types of animals the students can obtain. I have seen students use the class as an excuse to purchase a bearded dragon. I do not personally think it is good for a 15 year old to purchase a bearded dragon in the name of school because two years from now, the student will be off to college and MOST dorms and apartments will not allow said dragon. This means the parents will become responsible for the animal they may not have wanted in the first place ("But mom! I HAVE to have it for my CLASS!")
The second thing that I don't like is that the teacher doesn't seem to guide the students at all in appropriate care. He allows them to research using the internet. As we all know, some sources are better than others. When Pippen the painted turtle was brought back to me, his heat lamp was gone. When I asked the teacher about it he said the group might have traded it to another group for something. So my poor turtle went God knows how long without heat in a cold building (the kids told me he hadn't been eating well-- wonder why?)
If I take this class over I will be revamping the entire program. The students look forward to it because they get to work directly with animals, and so I'd like to keep that aspect going. I have enough critters of my own that I could really do this without the kids having to buy their own pet. What I was thinking of doing was making a rotation schedule where every 3-4 weeks, a group would get to care for a "typical" animal of a given group. I would bring in one good example for each group (i.e. lizards, snakes, insects, small mammals) and the students would have to research the animal and write their own caresheet about it, and then maintain it for a 2-3 week period. I'd pick the best "pet" species for that group for the students to maintain. This would allow them to gain experience in researching and caring for a pet without having to burden their families and their futures with their own pet.
I was thinking about possibly breeding Mongolian gerbils or another small mammal species that has a short life span so that students who really wanted to take a pet home could do so without jeopardizing their college plans and causing stress on their parents. Gerbils would be ideal for this-- theyare easy to care for and only live 2-3 years, so for the most part they would die a natural death prior to the students heading off to college. This would also give students experience with mammalian reproduction and behaviors associated with it.
I would also bring in some of my larger animals every other week, like Carlos the BCI, Dingo the Woma python and our new Sulcata, Lucy, to talk to the students about the challenges of caring for some of the larger more exotic species.
I think this would be a really good opportunity to teach teenagers about the responsibilities of caring for a captive animal. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and suggestions for the class. What would you like to see taught to 15 year olds about pet keeping, the reptile industry, etc?