An Elephant in the Snow?

A Grade 1 Workshop on Animal Needs and Characteristics

• Find out what makes elephants unique and what elephants need to survive life on the African savannah.
• Elephants have trunks! Is it a nose? An arm? A snorkel? A trumpet? Check out how elephants use their trunks in amazing ways.
• Elephants need to keep cool! Experiment with a life-size elephant ear replica and find out how elephants use their ears to cool off. Make a rubbing of their wrinkly skinand discover how that keeps them cool too.
• Elephants need space! Predict how much space a real elephant would take up in your classroom and then work cooperatively to create a life-size elephant.
• Elephants need food and water! Check out what they eat and then predict how much they'll eat and drink in one day.
• Elephants need their family! Can you match up the elephants in the family tree of one herd?
• Put it all together and find out why elephants are ill-suited for a life in captivity.
• Meet Lucy, an elephant who lives completely alone in an Edmonton zoo, spending half of the year in the snow and cold, and discover how you can make a difference in her life.
• For more information about this workshop, please click here.

 

A Polar Bear in Mexico?

•  Discover how polar bears are superbly adapted for life in a cold world.
• Experiment with blubber and ice water to find out how polar bears stay warm. 
  
• Check out a polar bear's skull and teeth, and learn what it eats.
• Try your best to see if you can jump as far as a polar bear can when it pounces on its prey.
• Investigate how polar bears' feet are adapted for ice and snow. Who has better feet for walking in the Arctic, you or the polar bear?
• Play "The Great Polar Bear Migration". Work cooperatively to hunt for seals as you cross the frozen ocean. Will you gain enough weight to survive?
• Put it all together and find out why polar bears are ill-suited for life in captivity.
•  Discover why Yupi the polar bear is adapted to a life in the frozen Arctic, not a life in a barren concrete enclosure in a tropical climate. 
• Best of all - find out what you can do to help Yupi!
• For more information about this workshop, please click here.

 

• Find out what a killer whale's ocean habitat is really like - it's a lot more than just salty water!
• Play Krill: A Whale of a Game, and discover what food chains exist in the Antarctic Ocean.
• Listen to the sounds a killer whale makes to communicate with its own pod, and find out how scientists study these calls using sound pictures called "spectrograms".
• Discover how whales "see" in the ocean using echolocation. Experiment with tuning forks to understand how sound travels through a whale's jawbone. Find out if you can catch your prey by listening for echoes.
• Learn how to identify individual whales in the wild by their saddle patches and dorsal fins.
• Make some predictions about how far a killer whale can swim in one day, and how deep they can dive.
• Then meet Corky, the longest held captive killer whale in history, and compare her captive habitat with an ocean habitat.
• Take action, and join the campaign to free Corky!
• For more information about this workshop, please click here.

 

• Discover the devastating impact pollution has on the animals in a marine habitat.
• Find out what it's like to become entangled in litter. Can you set yourself free?
• Check out the contents of the stomach of a sperm whale who washed up on a beach in North Carolina.
• Play an ocean feeding game - collect food items and see how many calories you need to stay alive. Can you survive once the "perils of plastic" invade your habitat?
• Learn all about the albatross - where it lives, what it eats, and how it cares for its chicks. Then learn how to create a dichotomous key to classify what plastic items albatross are likely to eat, and what impact ingested plastic has. 
• Put it all together and discover the negative impact marine debris is having on ocean animals.
• Then learn how you can protect wild animals by conserving and protecting their wild habitats.
• For more information about this workshop, click here.
   
 

  

BRAND NEW WORKSHOP - JUST ADDED!

 

A Chimpanzee in a Tutu?

A Grade 5 Workshop on the Human Body

 

  

• Learn all about organ systems and anatomy while exploring the similarities and diffferences between humans and their closest living relative, the chimpanzee. 
• Measure lung capacity and heart rate, and predict your blood volume. How does it compare to a chimpanzee?
• Intrepret x-rays from humans and chimps and compare the skeletal hand of a human to a chimpanzee's.
• Try to beat a chimp at a memory game.   
• Discover what muscles help humans move bipedally and what muscles help chimpanzees move quadrupedally.                                 
• Compare the diet, teeth, and digestive system of a human to a chimpanzee.
• Try to perform simple tasks without the use of your opposable thumb.
• Who's stronger, you or a chimp? Use a dynamometer to measure your arm strength and find out.
• Play a chromosome match-up game.      .                                             
• Check out human and chimpanzee fingerprints.
• Identify emotions using facial expressions.
• Learn more about chimps in captivity - in zoos and circuses, as pets, in the entertainment industry, in sanctuaries, and in research - and then learn how you can become an advocate for the chimpanzee!
• Teacher's Resource coming soon.    

                                     

                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Please note that our workshops are intended for a single class. Due to the hands-on nature of our presentations, please limit class size to 25 students for primary classes and 30 students for junior classes.

For Keep It Wild! workshop fees, click here.