Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm looking for some help creating education programs about my Honduran. She's 7 years old and has been doing this her whole life, but the place I got her from closed and they have no records of the programs they used to do with her. So if any of you have experience with education programs and snakes, I'd appreciate any tips or names that could help me.
Thanks!
-Traci

Traci what type of programs are you trying to put together?
I and a partner do many reptile oriented educational presentations, but they are really fairly large presentations and include a great variety of herps, from snakes and lizards through crocodilians.....I am happy to help you out if I can, but aam trying to understand what it is you are looking to do exactly!

Cheers,

Riley Campbell

Thanks for the reply Riley. I work at a science museum and we have several animals that we've been doing programs with for some time. We've done rat basketball for about 25 years, and we've had a regular show about spiders for about 5 years. The goal of rat basketball is to learn about how we learn and how animals learn, operant conditioning, that sort of thing. And the goal of the spider show was to introduce our toddler guests to an animal that can be scary to some adults (most don't know why) so we can stop these fears before they start and raise awareness of other life around us. Well, in the spirit of the Spider Show, I've started to grow my collection of creepy crawly animals, the latest one being a snake. So what I was looking for from you guys was a sort of 'here's what we want the world to know about these awesome creatures' kind of list. I've had Beatrice (my snake) for some time and have gotten to know her before I take her out to interact with guests, so I'm comfortable with her-crazy about her, actually-so my next step is to create a program for her.
Phew, that was wordy, huh? Anyway, any help or ideas you can give me would be a huge help.
Thanks!
-Traci

By the way, Beatrice has done educational programming since she hatched at a pet food company's ed center. So she's a pro, but I'm not.

Traci it sounds as though you really are heading in the direction you need without much help! If you are putting together a snake program the first thing I would do is familiarize yourself with the species in your area (the area of the residents whom will benefit from the program)and cover the venomous vs. non venomous taxa first...then explain why they are ALL important and why the venomous taxa should be respected enjoyed and left unmolested. Ask people what makes a snake a snake....and then tell them, I enjoy using sheltopusiks in my programs as a trick question..."what kind of snake is this?" explain to people the benefits snake present us in agriculture, and the functions they serve as rodent control. A wise African naturalist once said "people only protect what they love, only love what they understand, and understand only that which they are taught." SO you have your hands full... it is easy to find so much to use in programs Traci that it is hard to decide what to use in a program, from species commonly sold as pets that shouldn't be, to getting people to not kill them in the field. Today's variety of television programs about snakes are also many times filled with misinformation...so there are more things to cover there.....obtain a snake skull, or a replica....many people do not realize that snakes have teeth or bones! I know hard to believe but true..I hear all over the country...
Talk about wordy.....Traci if I can help you work out a program I will be happy to do so...look in on the caht room and try to catch me in there so we do not flood the forum!

Cheers,

Riley Campbell