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
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