Day 5

Started at 9 this morning. I worked on lesson planning for our camp on water, which is first conducted during the second week of camp. I first came up with topics for each day: Mnday - Freshwater, Tuesday - Oceans, Wednesday - Arctic waters, Thursday - Turtles vs. Tortoises, Friday - Water Importance and Conservation. Then, I came up with some lesson ideas, zoo tours, crafts, games, and zoo activities within each of those topics. It is so much fun planning out activities and lessons for the kids. My partner focused on lesson planning for our week on Animobility, adaptations, and exercise.

We interns were invited to come attend an educational program that was put on for a first grade class today in the zoo. Cristina, a worker in the educational department, put on this presentation. She actually graduated from college with a degree in journalism. After working in public relations for a few years, she wanted to change careers and got her job at the zoo. I found it cool that it's not all just biology and related majors working at the zoo. Cristina showed three animals to the students: a bearded dragon, a marine toad, and a blue-tongued skink.

This is a photo of Cristina with the bearded dragon:

This was one of the funnest parts of the day for me. It really reminded me of the Creature Outreach Program that I have particpated in at Morningside. I've actually helped show Luna, who  was our bearded dragon, to several second grade students in Sioux City. It is so cool that there are people that do that sort of thing all the time for their job. I'm jealous right now :-) This internship is such a great experience for me already, and I think it is just going to get better.

We also become a bit more official employees today... we got our Blank Park Zoo nametags. They're pretty legit:

One cool feature is that these are actually what we use to clock in everyday. There's a magnet on the back, which you can see below. All you have to do is get your nametag close to the timecard, and it beeps, your name pops up on the screen, and a voice says "thank you" for real haha We all felt pretty special.



That wraps up the first week of my internship at the Blank Park Zoo. Then, I did a little shopping back in Ankeny after work for fun.