Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I teach 7th grade science in Michigan and plan on breeding corns as a part of my genetics unit. I am looking for other teachers and classrooms to participate in an email discussion group. I currently have one class from Texas and my room.

I was thinking that the students could email questions, comments and photos of their classroom reptiles. We could also exchange genotype info for the parents before the breedings and compare predictions. Although my class and the other class are working with corn snakes it might be interesting to incorporate other species.

I am waiting to see if a grant that I wrote comes through, if it does I will have some real neat corn crosses for the students to predict. My current snakes should be ready to be bred next spring.

I look forward to hearing from other interested educators.

My wife is a new grad as a biology teacher and we were talking about something real similar to this. She is not in a class right now but we are working ob building a collection of herps. I am trying to get all the info I can on classroom pets. I would really like some idea on the grant you wrote. Is this a Michigan thing or is it open to all teachers? What types of stuff could you get? Please let me know anything that may help. Thanks, Jason Box

although we breed leos and our mice (to feed the snake, Hannah) as genetics lessons intead of corns. Let me know...e-mail me with the details. -Shannon
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The Classroom Zoo is...
1:3 leopard geckos
1:0 Jackson's Chameleon
1:0 Veiled Chameleon
1:1 Bearded Dragons
0:1 Florida Kingsnake
0:1 White's Tree Frog
Hairless Mice, Roaches, Mealies, and Supers...

I wish that I had been in a room with all of those animals when I was in school.

Right now, I have a teacher in Austin, Texas and myself that are planning on having our students email questions about the care and genetics of our snakes to enrich their experience. We plan on having them send some photos of the progress of the animals, mine will be babies next fall and his are already breeding.

We haven't figured out much more than that at this time and are flexible to expand this to were ever it takes us. It sounds like you have alot to offer and I look forward to discussing this more with you. I can be reached during the summer at dcoachisin@yahoo.com

The Classroom Zoo is...
1:3 leopard geckos
1:0 Jackson's Chameleon
1:0 Veiled Chameleon
1:1 Bearded Dragons
0:1 Florida Kingsnake
0:1 White's Tree Frog
Just wondering when you say 1:3 and 1:0 and so on what are you refering to?

I male and 1 female. You might also see three numbers, e.g. 1:3:2 That translates to one male, three females, and two babies that haven't been sexed yet. Hope that helps!
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The Classroom Zoo is...
1:2 leopard geckos, R.I.P. Rosie
1:1(gravid) African Fat Tail Geckos
1:0 Jackson's Chameleon
1:0 Veiled Chameleon
1:1 Bearded Dragons
0:1 Florida Kingsnake
0:1 White's Tree Frog
Hairless Mice, Roaches, Mealies, and Supers...

http://www.virtualhomestead.blogspot.com

The grant that I wrote was through a local education foundation. They fund projects that occur in our school district that involve a cooperation between the school, community and businesses. I have been working with a local pet shop, members of the Michigan Society of Herpetologists and Kathy Love of Cornutopia. The discussion group between teachers and students is also a part of the grant. If the grant is OKed I will receive a little more than $3000 to purchase snakes, housing equipment, food for two years and incubation equipment. I should hear whether I received it or not pretty soon.

I would guess that many other communities also have some type of organization that is interested in helping to make interesting projects available to students.

If your wife's class is interested we would love to have her and her class be a part. So far the two classes involved are both middle school classes but we are open to involving both high school and elementary classes. The more teachers we get involved the better the experience will be for all. I can be reached over the summer at dcoachisin@yahoo.com

Another fun one, that can be pretty easily accomplished during a school term, is with salamanders. Phenotypic variation (cannibal morph vs. normal) among ambystomatid salamanders could be an interesting introductionto genetics.
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Justin, Julie and the meangerie...
(Bobbing igs, snapping macklots, exploring ball, hungry kings, hyper grey rat, quacking tribs, hissing roaches, wriggling worms & chirping crickets)
Vermont Herpetological Society Online
www.vermontherps.org

This sounds fantastic! Can I Please Please be involved? I recently got 4 cornsnakes for almost this very purpose. I am fascinated by all of the varieties in color and pattern that can be devrived from a single species. The snakes were hatched only this year, so it will be a while before they are of breeding age, but this is what we have:

1.0 albino (amelanistic)
1.0 Anerythristic
0.1 normal motley
0.1 normal (with apparent "Aztec" markings)

I will do anything at all I can to help you with this. Be that pictures, or correspondance with answers and my own questions. My 7 year old son jsut thinks "they're cool" but I would love to be able to teach him something more through this.

Crotus,

I am always looking for people to be a part of the group. I am still in the early stages of putting this together and would be glad to add you to the list.

I received the grant and have a dozen baby corns of a pretty wide variety of color morphs and patterns. You can reach me at dcoachisin@yahoo.com this is not my primary email site so it may take me a couple days to get back with you.