November 26, 2003
Students enjoy extremely wild science lesson
Program brings boa constrictor, cavy toucan and tarantella into schools
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With a fascinated horror, a sort of eager reluctance, students in Ms. Parcia's fifth-grade classroom reached out one by one to pet the tarantella.
Perched delicately on the hand of science interpreter Amber Frederick, the arachnid "Daisy" was impervious to the uncertainty around her. Occasionally shifting her eight legs around or flexing a pincer, her soft hair gleamed under the fluorescent lights at the Immaculate Conception Middle School's fifth-grade classroom.
Frederick introduced "Daisy" as well as four other animals that are part of the Living Science Foundation's Natural Science unit: a Patagonian cavy, a toucan, a spotted salamander and a Colombian boa constrictor. Based in Plymouth, Mich., interpreters from the Living Science foundation visited Holy Angels Elementary School Thursday and Immaculate Conception Middle School on Friday.
By petting and seeing these animal ambassadors up close and personal, students immersed themselves in lessons of anatomy, physiology, animal classifications, habitats, diet and adaptive features. As Frederick took each animal around the room, students reached out to touch, marveling at the scaly snake, the soft feathers of the toucan, the furry tarantella body.
"I liked the toucan the best," said Lindsay Hill, a fifth-grade student at Immaculate Conception Middle School. "I've never seen one before except on TV as Toucan Sam. The toucan was really soft."
Classmate Ashleigh Hammond weighed in for "Daisy."
"I liked the tarantella," she said. "It was very hairy, soft; it was different than touching any other animals."
The Living Science Foundation's mission is to make science more fun, more accessible and easy to learn. By giving students a chance to experience the animals, petting them while listening about their lives or asking questions, they absorb and retain the information better.
"We try to use as many senses as we can to teach," noted Kathleen Parcia, a fifth-grade teacher at Immaculate Conception Middle School.
Frederick held Parcia's class spellbound, first enrolling them in proper animal etiquette: speak quietly or not at all, stay in your seats, don't make any sudden moves.
"We want to make the animals feel safe," said Frederick, adding that all animals in the Living Science Foundation's programs come from zoos, dealers or breeders. None were captured in the wild.
She also told students it was OK not to pet an animal, adding that some of the animals made her nervous when she first started working with them. She prompted the students to signal her with a thumbs up if they wanted to pet an animal or crossed arms to skip the experience.
Wearing the boa constrictor, "Midnight," for the duration of her lecture about her, Frederick led students through the sensory capabilities of the snake. She also told them about how the scales move to propel snakes and the difference between the top and the stomach scales. She also told the students that human beings have 20 scales on their bodies: ten fingernails and ten toenails.
Noting that boa constrictors squeeze their prey until they the animal is asphyxiated, then devour the morsel head first, Frederick reassured the students that they did not have to worry about her and "Midnight."
"I'm too big to eat and she knows that," Frederick told them as the snake slithered to a new position around her neck and shoulders. "It takes a lot of energy to squeeze something and she's not going to waste her energy trying to squeeze me."