Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today at my kid class we're going to bring in turtles and tortoises.
We're ready to show the CD full of deformed turtle pictures that I have to the kids.
The large male sulcata (75lbs)that belongs to my vet will be there, she adopted him about 1 year ago. He's a bit deformed but because they don't know what normal looks like I can't make them understand what's wrong with him, so I have a photo of a normal one to show them so they can understand why I say something is wrong with him.
I can't take my own sulcata but I have the photos of how horrible she looked the day she got here.
I can't take her because I can't get her there by myself, I can't lift her now that she weighs 60 lbs.
This year I don't have anyone who can take off work to come help me with her. My vet's will be there because she has employees she pays who can deliver them to the class.

I'll let you know how this goes with 6-12 year olds.
-----
PHRatz

The photos really drummed it into the kids, we don't feed junk food to turtles or tortoises.
The older kids the 4th-6th graders really got it, the younger kids were very sad to see deformed ones & one kid asked me not to show any more because he was going to cry.
I told him that even though they're all deformed they were all vet treated, all of them are living at the moment. He was ready to see more when I said that.
Before any classes began I wrote some things on the blackboard, one paragraph said
No cat food
No dog food
No iceberg lettuce for any reptiles period.
During the last class a mother came in to pick up her son early. She asked me about that. what? no dog food?
I dragged her to the computer & showed her the photos of the deformed box who'd been fed nothing but turtle pellets & the other who'd never eaten anything but dog food.
She said "but they like it". I said "And kids love chocolate."
That's all it took she said she'll stop with the dog food.
That does it I'm going to collect even more photos than I have now & we're going to do this every year from now on.
It really made the point better than anything else I've ever done.
Wow!
-----
PHRatz

GO RATZ!!!

thats great! i wish we had someone to do that here in athens (georgia).. how did you go about getting involved with this? i wonder if it is something i could do? not anytime soon, i dont think i can fit anything else in my current schedule, but maybe after summer... its a fantastic idea to go and educate kids about reptiles... the most common excuse i hear for keeping a wild caught boxie (or any other wild caught herp) is "but my kids love it and want to keep it"... maybe if they knew more about them they could appreciate that they are wild animals and need to stay in the wild, or at the very least, learn enough to keep them alive and happy.. youre doing a great thing!
-----
my pets: clown treefrogs, reed frogs, big eyed treefrogs, tiger leg monkey frogs, gray treefrogs, milk frogs, cuban treefrogs, whites tree frog, green treefrogs, squirrel treefrogs, blue webbed gliding treefrog, red eye treefrogs, chameleon treefrogs?, mossy treefrogs, dusky salamanders, tiger salamander, box turtles, mud turtle, map turtle, yellowbelly slider, florida softshell, two saltwater tanks, five cats, two chinchillas, and a boyfriend.

I got involved in 1999 after the woman who used to own a tiny business here called the Reptile Rodent Ranch invented this class called Reptiles & Rodents, she would take only 10 students and wouldn't take any under the 4th grade level. Then she got a divorce closed her business and moved away.
The local college has had this program they call a summer enrichment program for kids for over 20 years, the whole thing is called Kid's College. There are 80 to 100 or so classes offered from computer to sports to arts & crafts to cooking you name it, Reptiles & Rodents is just one of them. The director of KC wanted to make this class grow so now it requires 2 teachers, enrollment limit is 30 & our class always fills all the way up.
In 1997 or so they found themselves without a teacher for Reptiles & Rodents, they tried local school teachers, a pet store owner, nobody worked out.
By 1999 I had graduated from the vet-tech program a couple of years before & was recommened to the director of Kid's College by someone from the vet-tech program. I tried it, I was horrible at it the first time but they kept offering the job to me so I kept coming back & now that I have a fabulous co-teacher it's been a wonderful thing that I love doing.
I fell into this, literally just fell into it so I've stuck with it & this is my 8th year to teach it so I am not quite as horrible at it as I was the first time LOL.

I didn't know then but now I know that in the Kid's College program if a person wants to invent a class, they can submit plans to the director & they'll try offering that class if it's feasable. If the class "makes" then any body can teach a class for them. Meaning as long as enough kids are signed up anybody who can pass a background check can teach a class there.
Yes you should try it because I've been told that over the past 20 years colleges nationwide have contacted the director here to find out how to start a program like this for their own college. This type of program makes the colleges who do it a ton of money.
They do it for the money which is always the bottom line.
-----
PHRatz

I'm so glad it worked out for you. I might request a copy of it in the future to show my students.
Good work!

>>I'm so glad it worked out for you. I might request a copy of it in the future to show my students.
>>Good work!

I'd be happy to pass along what I have if you want to try it.
I asked my DH last night, can't these photos be copied onto DVD so that next time we can show these on the TV screen?
He said yes he can do that.. so I'm going to "do over" & then make sure that next year when I request a DVD player I get one instead of this crummy ancient VCR they sent me.
-----
PHRatz

I liked the little kid that said he was going to cry!
-----
0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.9.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>I liked the little kid that said he was going to cry!

I know I thought that was sweet too.
-----
PHRatz