Fun Biology Education Programme Sees Crocodile Bite Hat
I recently paid a visit to the Australian Reptile Park near Gosport NSW. Not that I have a liking for creepy crawlies or things that slither but the family wanted to learn about the deadly brigade. The park has a very obvious mission; to educate children and adults through a fun approach to learning. Facts and figures can be boring unless you present them in an entertaining way and the Reptile park has a definite way of maintaining the interest of children through a variety of shocks, challenges, practical demonstrations and toilet jokes! Holding children and parents spellbound through a series of biology educational games the head keeper provided one young lad with a lasting memory by tricking him into shaking hands just after an anaconda had pee’d on his hand. A practical joke or a way of reinforcing the message that snakes too have bodily functions, and a proportion of whatever they eat is turned intro waste.
But what about the lad who “volunteered†his cap to allow the head keeper to play a game with the snapping jaws of a young crocodile. Demonstrating the difference in attack method between an alligator’s single lunge and the crocodile’s snap and violent twist the cap became the centre of attention and somewhat battle scarred. But what a hero back at school when the lad can explain that the holes in his cap were from crocodile bites. Now where can you get that from text books.
Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk/news
