Students and tigers and polar bears, oh my!
Assiniboine Park Zoo is winding down its free classroom residency programs for 2024-25 as staff prepare to accept applications for the upcoming school year.
A 21st century zoo is as much an educational facility as it is a place for animal caretaking, said Barret Miller, manager of education at Assiniboine Park Conservancy.
“Nobody ever gets used to working alongside polar bears,” Miller said.
“But you do enter a place where it’s not so new and novel that you can absorb new information and build a deeper connection.”
Hosting students on a regular basis allows children and youth to be continuously wowed by majestic animals — as is the case during one-off field trips — and engage in more authentic learning about empathy and conservation efforts, he said.
Miller said his goal is for students to understand both how the natural world supports them and their role in protecting it.
The conservancy, the Leaf and the zoo began inviting teachers to set up satellite schools on its grounds in 2018.
Roughly 1,700 students from about 60 classrooms have since participated in two residency programs that involve multiple behind-the-scenes tours over the course of a school year.
A group of Grade 6 zoologists from École Leila North Community School came across a scuba diver who was scrubbing a glass tank clean during a recent visit.
Their guide, Kelly Ross, asked the amateur zoologists to consider how the rescued harbour seals were acting, given a human was inside their house.
This led to rapid-fire questioning of Ross, who develops conservation programs for the zoo. “Is it cold in the water?” “Can I volunteer to do this?” “What if the seals try to attack him?”
(To which she replied: it was 13 C in the tank, the zoo does accept volunteers although the diver is a trained professional, and he’s protected in a heavy-duty wetsuit.)
Teacher Carolyn Jefferson said her employer, the Seven Oaks School Division, urges their staffers to embed passions into their lessons and one of hers is environmentalism.
The challenge is her students are often distracted when outside and prioritize socializing above all else.
Jefferson’s solution? Nominating her students for a special designation so they could meet zoo animals, learn their stories and become more concerned and caring for other creatures.
Seven months into their residency, she said there has been minor, albeit noticeable progress among the class.
The entire group was captivated by the waterfall and diverse plant life at the Leaf, as evidenced by enthusiastic journal entries, their teacher said.
Jefferson added some of her students have become particularly fond of the harbour seals — a development that happened when they heard about the boating accidents that landed some of the animals in care.
The diversity of living things is one of five major sections in the Grade 6 science curriculum. Children study the different animal kingdoms and extinct species, among related topics, as they enter middle years.
Darian Morisette, 12, said he learned about endangered species when he and his classmates were last at the zoo with Mme. Jefferson.
“All the ice is melting in the Arctic and that means (polar bears) can’t hunt,” Darian said outside the zoo’s Journey to Churchill exhibit.
Leila North was one of six schools selected for the conservancy’s generalized residency program, also known as the Goodman School, this year. Grade 4 to 6 participants will have had the opportunity to spend the equivalent of a full week at the park for free by the time the final bell rings for the summer.
Nine classes from another five schools were tapped to specifically study Arctic life and research via the Dorothy Strelsin Polar Bear Education Program targeted at middle years students.
Miller, who oversees both residencies, said the donors strongly believe in the value of field work and the benefits it can bring students and teachers.
The experience has furthered Jefferson’s resolve to find creative ways to take students outside and teach them about the interconnectedness of all living things.
“My big takeaway from the program is to never stop trying to engage the students with land and animals,” she said, adding her advice to other educators is to do the same because there will be lightbulb moments, although they don’t always come easily.
The zoo is anticipated to open its next round of residency applications next month.
