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so are you the person in your town...........

who gets calls to do stuff like this??

Monday afternoon i get a call from a teacher who is running a summer school camp called "Creepy Crawly Bug Camp" asking if i still had my snakes and stuff and would i be willing to haul some critters to the school. i said sure.................

last night after looking around i decided i dont have much in the way of easilly portable critters anymore, the boa constrictor is in the process of shedding and is quite pissy so it was a no go, the furry critters dont do well with large groups and the frogs are difficult to extract from their heavily planted tanks so i call the teacher up and explain the situation. she said the kids are around 6,7 and 8 and "dont get out much" and were extreamly excited to see a moth that someone brought in yesterday. i said i had a bunch of CP's and stuff like that too, she said bring in WHATEVER you would like.

anyways this morning i rounded up a few CP's, a couple sundews, pings and even grabbed the ventrata and amp along with a dart frog, termites, one of the scorpions and even my orchid growing on a deer skull.

i walk in the door at 8(i had waken up at 7:30) and the teacher settles every one down and i start pulling stuff out of my basket of goodies starting with the orchid(which was a hit Bruce, even with the teachers so there), proceeded with the pings and sundews which i brought along expendable ones so the kids could touch them, than moved on to the nepenthes where i mentioned that they range from Austrailia, through southeast asia and even Madigascar at which point the kids gasped and some said and i quote "Madigascar really exists?!?!?" that caused a stir for a couple minutes, they thought it was just a cartoon place.

moved on to the critters, should have left this guy for last but the dart frog resulted in a 20 minute question and answer session on its own. than i showed the termites, another big hit as the kids had heard of them and never seen them. finally we ended with the scorp at which point the teachers started quizing me on the local species which i have never personally seen but was common where they have taught before in a town about 80 miles away. i think it slept through the whole thing and didnt budge while the kids filed past.

i was a hit and it seems that i will have several encore presentations this fall in 4th and 5th grade science classes
 
Woohoo! Awesome! Last 2 years back I had to give a presentation to some 5th graders for my bio class. I decided to do it on CP and it was a big hit! I've also presented to my 5th grade class.

Don't you just love their youthful enthusiasm? A lot of the time you can get some really good questions and comments out of 'em! Not to mention it feels nice to spread the knowledge to the youngins!!

Congrats on your success.
 
My mom was always the one called to do stuff like this. Not with plants, but with animals. I called her the year before last to bring some snakes, birds, hamsters, etc. out to our church fall festival because we were having a petting zoo. She has always been the "weird lady with all the weird animals."
 
I'm the guy that gets phone calls all the time that goes something like this. " Hey I just found a black snake about 3 ft long, What kind is it?"


LOL
 
That sounds awsome Rattler. There is nothing quite like stirring curious minds.
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You never know if your talk might spark a kid's interest that might turn out to be a real vocation and career on down the road.

Go Nature Boy! lol
 
bout the only thing i would do different is schedule it for later.........8 am is WAY to early in the morning for me to be dealing with that many kids, i hadnt even had caffine yet..........
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HAHA they were thinking of the Movie Madagascar! Its a pixar animation film! thats funny.
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (0zzy @ June 22 2006,3:04)]I'm the guy that gets phone calls all the time that goes something like this. " Hey I just found a black snake about 3 ft long, What kind is it?"


LOL
LOL Ozzy, my last one was....................and i quote "Can you come tell me if this is a rat?" aparently the cops killed a furry critter and told the ppl on the street it was a muskrat.......the ppl living there didnt believe them and called ME to confirm ID as they thought it was a sewer rat....................the cops were right but i had to sit and explain just why i thought it was a muskrat and how to tell the difference to the ppl
 
My calls are in the neighborhood of 'I am being held hostage by gunpoint, can you come help me!'
 
  • #10
i wonder why wolf........................
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  • #11
I gave a geology presentation to a 5th grade class once and have never felt so important & interesting in all my life.
 
  • #12
I look forward to doing stuff like this once I get the time to do so.  This will be once I get out of nursing school in 3 years.  I have always wanted to give a talk and give the children starter plants.  I love getting people addicted to orchids or CPs.
 
  • #13
I remember being called on by my oldest boys 8th grade science teacher to talk about CP. Of course I thought it would be one class so I said sure. A week before the lecture, my kids teacher called me and simply told me he moved it to the auditorium so he could get a better viewing of Nature's "Death Traps" video that I was bringing with me. I thought nothing of it. 35 kids would be a breeze!
So the big day arrived. I went with neps, sarrs, VFT's sundews, ping's----the works! I set up in the auditorium, and heard the pitter patter of a heard of elephants. I had the video running so the first thing the kids saw was a pillbug traveling through a LOT of VFT's. When the pillbug finally became lunch, the collective gasp of the springing trap told me all I wanted to know. THEY WERE HOOKED! So, I turned around from setting up to turn off the video, and address the kids. OMIGAWD!!!!!! The word had gotten out that Mr. Castro, the science teacher was having a lecture on CP, and suddenly 4 other science classes joined them. About 150 kids were staring at me, so what could I do? I lectured to the most attentive group of kids I ever saw. In the whole group, there was one disruptor who was known in the neighborhood as the local punk. Outbursts like, "BORING!" kept coming from his general direction, so I said, "AH! Mr. Wharton! Still a jerk I see! I tell you what. Since No one here wants to hear your mouth, I invite ANYONE here who would rather be somewhere else, to leave." Joel tried to get his hangers on to go with him, and TO A MAN(Kid) they told him to get lost because they WERE interested. The only one who left was the disruptor! NOT ONE soul besides that twit, left. 150 kids were glued to their seats, including the school "hard guys". It was a great experience for me to know that these plants were cool enough that even the bad boys wanted to learn and understand about them. I had a ball!!!!! And so did they!
 
  • #14
Wow. It must be such a great feeling.
 
  • #15
Been there Sheridan and done that. I know somewhere in the forums is the story of me, the Tokay gecko and the pre-school class. Long story short, lots of blood and a really sore tounge from bitting it to keep from expressing what I really felt in front of 30 5 year olds
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]a really sore tounge from bitting it to keep from expressing what I really felt in front of 30 5 year olds

which is why i didnt haul the boa down, i didnt figure if the worst happened i wouldnt beable to hold my tongue. the boa is great when its in a good mood but when he is pissy some one is loosing some blood
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  • #17
[b said:
Quote[/b] (rattler_mt @ June 23 2006,10:23)]the boa is great when its in a good mood but when he is pissy some one is loosing some blood
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Yeah all things equal I should have known better. Tokay's are NEVER in a good mood LOL
 
  • #18
Speaking of getting bit by the ones we love. My finger is throbbing right now. My most lovable reptile just mistaked my finger for some food. My 2 ft long blue tongue skink. I feed her mice by hand, so she's used to me sticking my hand in the cage with food. I drooped in a handful of sliced vegetables and when I dropped in the second handful she ran up and grabbed my finger. I felt her and she latched on. My first thought was she don't bite too hard. The bite was like in two stages. The first stage was the painless grab. It was like she paused after the grab. Then the second and more painful stage. She bit down on my finger right on my fingernail. I pulled back and I think she realised that she had hold of me instead of food and so she let go. I have been told that Blue tongue skinks grab and hold on. I'm thankful she let me go.
 
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