Public Presentations

[AaronAcker]

Well word has gotten out in my town that I have dart frogs. A few teachers have gotten a hold of me, and as of right now I agreed to give presentations at three public school and the public library. The three school presentations will be for three different age groups, 1st grade, 7th grade, and a junior h.s. class. The library will be for mixed ages 8-15. My question is what would you present to the different age groups? Here are some of the topics I think that would be good for the different age groups.

1st grader topics: different species, sizes, colors, toxins, maybe some parental care. I may print out some blank dart frog pictures for them to color? If i can find that ID card thread?
7th grader topics: species, sizes, toxins, breeding/parental care, vivarium??
Junior HS: species, sizes, toxins, breeding/parental care, maybe more biological orientated??

Was thinking of putting together a short DVD? as well as having a few of my frogs with me to show the kids... Any ideas?

[MonarchzMan]

With presentations that I've given, I usually go over dart frog biology and depending on the age group, I'll go more in depth into it.

For first grade, I'd go over dart frog biology and ecology. Say where they are, what they do, and why they're important, what is different about them. I would count on 20-30 minutes of actual presenting and then depending on how long you have, the rest of the time to answer questions and perhaps show pictures/frogs to the class (you could do coloring). Just remember that you have to be basic at this age group (one of my biggest difficulties, because sometimes they don't understand everything, even as simple as predators).

For seventh grade, I'd get a little more in depth about dart frog biology and ecology. Talk about toxins, where they get them. Talk about different kinds of dart frogs. Maybe talk about scientific names and their importance (you could even break them down and translate them for the kids). You could probably even touch on conservation (one of my eventual goals is to get my old HS involved in a Save the Rainforest campaign; middle school could probably do it too).

For junior high school, I'd continue off of the seventh grade stuff and perhaps get more into the science of dart frogs. Talk about the polymorphy complexes (like pumilio) and the evolution of these frogs. Talk about aposematism and its consequences. Or egg feeding behavior.

My rationale for programs is that you should, more or less, start at a very basic level. The younger the kids are, the less attention they're going to have. You can add off of the basic stuff and get more and more complex as the ages increase. Visuals are always a plus and appreciated (whether they're photos or frogs). I doubt it needs to be said, but if you're excited and even goofy, the kids will learn more and be more excited about it (this is especially important with teenagers who "don't care" about anything). If you speak monotoned, they'll be bored.

Participation is always a good thing. One of the guys I worked with over the summer did a really cool exercise to explain predator learning of aposematism. The kids got a little bag of M&Ms and were told to eat a red M&M. The guy then told the kids to imagine that that was the worst thing that they have ever tasted in their lives. He told them that they were still hungry though, so they could have another M&M, but they had to keep in mind that the red ones tasted bad and that they had to try to choose one that would taste good. Most kids chose the brown ones. It'd be a good activity that the kids would enjoy and it'd teach them a bit about aposematism.

Good luck!

[AaronAcker]

Yes, all very good points. I've taught many different age groups (being an artist) its usually as a guest artist, or whatever, but have done 6-8year old art classes to college art classes, and know exactly what you mean w/ boredom and teenagers who just dont care! lol... I'm glad that I've been given another opportunity to "teach", and even happier that i may be able to touch on some of the conservation topics w/ the older children. I wish i could find that topic on the ID cards that had "blank" colored frogs lol, that would be good to leave the kids w/.

anyone have a link?

[barnes]

http://allaboutfrogs.org/funstuff/coloring/poison.html

http://www.coloring.ws/t.asp?b=m&t=http ... ogs/33.gif


not the best but some thing

[bellerophon]

might be a good idea to bring along some literature for operation frog pond and ASN from Tree Walkers. Not for the kids but it may give the teachers some options of how to incorporate amphibs into their lessons.

[AaronAcker]

Yes will do

[Mac]

I am currently in Junior High(9) grade, and as for the seventh graders, i would highly advise using pictures and vids. Show them some clips of frogs fighting, courting, stuff like that, maybe egg feeding. At that age, I dont think that they will think much about their names and such, but maybe if you grabed their attention first with clips and pictures, and lots of facts. Facts that make them say," wow their that small" " Dang look at them fight".

Just my view.

edit: Update us on on how this goes, I am excited for some reason

[Ben_C]

might be a good idea to bring along some literature for operation frog pond and ASN from Tree Walkers.

If you do this, contact TWI very EARLY (i.e. months in advance).

For the outreach stuff that I've done, I think that the absolute, hands down, most important thing to bring (independent of age) is a large (>55 gal) planted vivarium with a few species in it (yes, mixed tank....just for the outreach...). Very few things (read: nothing) that we can bring will keep a kids attention more than trying to find a frog in a dart-poison frog vivarium! In fact, I just had an outreach last friday at our museum with kids ranging from I'd say 5 to 13 (1st grade to 7th?) and brought over a 55g vivarium with some auratus and pumilio, some microscope slides with frog skin (Dendrobates auratus) and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We also had a game that the museum designed to demonstrate how deadly Bd is!
If you'd like more information on what we did, feel free to e-mail me (bchan at biology dot utah dot edu)
I hope this helps,
B

[bellerophon]

Originally Posted by Ben_C

We also had a game that the museum designed to demonstrate how deadly Bd is!

oh my! lol, anyone not paying attention get a dart in the neck! :wink:

[oldlady25715]

For the older groups it would be really cool if you had a couple adult tincs and auratus in sealed containers to show or even pass around with the caveat to be really really careful.

Try to take the opportunity to link to conservation and global warming concerns. Scare them from eating fast food burgers that destroy rainforests!