Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am a sophomore at northeastern highschool (central pa)and i have about 13 herps right now. i have been coming to this forum for years and keeping for about 5. anyway, in my school we are required to do a senior project in order to graduate, and while i still have 2 years to do it i am doing it now, along with my boyfriend. we have decided to do a reptile"demonstration" at a local elementary school, probably for third graders. we are going to teach them about the animals natural habitats, how they eat, and other things about the herps. we want to teach them to respect the animals and not to be afraid of them. im going to take herps with me and allow the kids to touch/hold/ look at the actual animals they are learning about. any suggestions on how we should do this successfully would be very greatly appreciated.
thanks for all of the help
~icy
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UroKnight...coming soon
1.0.0 mali uromastyx
1.2.0 green anole
1.0.0 brown anole
1.0.0 emperor scorpion
1.0.0 cuban knight anole
1.0.0 ribbon snake(currently escaped)
1.0.0 african clawed frog
1.0.1 green iguana
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.0.1 3 lined salamander
0.1.0 albino leopard gecko
0.0.2 house gecko
0.0.1 crocodile gecko

Make sure you bring some kind of anti-bacterial sterilizer for the kids after they touch the animals. Do not necessarily allow the kids to hold them at first, but ask for a few volunteers to come up and touch or hold half the animal while you hold the rest of the animal. I know of a friend who does snake shows and two kids began arguing over a snake and ended up breaking its neck. Do not force anyone to touch the herps if they do not wnat to. Let some brave volunteers do it first and more than likely many of the kids will warm up and want to touch them. Just be careful, do not let the animals get too stressed, make sure everyone washes their hands, and DO NOT LET ANYONE RECEIVE A BITE. If a kid get a bite, there will be hell to pay...Good luck to you and have though. Always good to inform kids about herps.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"Some things will never change. They just stand there looking backwards. Half-unconsious from the pain. They may seem rearranged. In the backwater swirling. There is something that'll never change-The Meat Puppets"

good advice in the last post--definitely agree. The way we used to do it was to let the kids touch or support the back end of the snake (we had an amel cornsnake who was just magical when it came to compelling people to touch him), that way we had control of the head. What we always used to say when the kids (or parents) invariably asked 'do they bite' was 'any animal with teeth can bite' so that's why we keep control of the head. Reassure anyone who is afraid that there's nothing wrong with being nervous and then don't focus any more attention on them....it is likely that they may relax as they see others interact with the animals and don't feel that there is any pressure on themselves...it's amazing how many will work up the courage to touch the animal and then realize it isn't as bad as they thought at all.
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Sue Barnett

0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
0.1 'found in someone's garage' kitten (Terra)

1.0 Betta (Flash) and 1.0 FL kingsnake (Vega) currently living with 1.0 boyfriend (Ethan)

I think it would be a good idea to do a video. Children who are afraid of herps are less apt to get up and run away during your presentation. It'll give you a chance to have it done before hand. Plus, if you are wanting to get a whole ton of animals eating into a short amount of time...this will be very important. You could simply open your show introducing the "characters" in the movie, cut the lights, play the video, turn the lights on after finishing the video and let everyone know that they are welcome to come and meet your pets. Also, if you notice, children are roudy when the lights are on...but when they go off...they tend to calm down. I'm sure the teachers would appreciate some down time. Anyway! That's my two cents. Good luck!

Sam

I answered a question similar to yours in another forum and I hope this re-run of my answer will help you.

I’ve given snake presentations at libraries for years. I do a slide show and show a few live animals. The whole thing takes 45-60 minutes. My audience is usually 5-12 year olds. Most of the time I work alone. I only have an assistant if I borrow a friend’s large constrictor. I’ve had large audiences (over 200) but find that presentations to 60 people or less are more interesting and enjoyable for both the audience and me.

The key is for you to be in firm control of the situation. I give the kids my ground rules before I start… everyone stays sitting on their bums, no fast movements, no silly fear displays (kids act up in front of their friends but if you tell them to cut the goofiness, they do!). I show the snakes one at a time and I walk the animal through the crowd, talking about it as I go. It doesn’t take long per animal, everybody gets a close look without the snake being mobbed, and, if anyone acts up or stands up to get a closer look, I immediately walk away from them and tell them why I’m doing so (they always behave after that). Often, parents are in the audience and the rules apply to them too (although they, of course, are usually sitting in chairs rather than on the floor with the kids). When I first started doing these talks, I had kids gathering around me and I realized that there was too much potential for an accident. The walkabout works much better and I remain behind after a presentation for those who want to chat more about the snakes.

I also tell the audience whether or not they can touch each animal (e.g. my BP has done this for years and doesn’t care who touches him but my black pine has only done half a dozen shows so far, so I don’t want to stress her more than necessary). I remind the children that a snake is not a dog or cat. It can be docile but it’s not domesticated. I ask them to touch the body but not the head, as even my most placid snake can be a little head shy at times.

As I walk around with the snake, I watch the kids far more closely than my snake. I know each snake’s personality and what it’s likely to do. If something bad were to happen (and thank goodness, it never has), there’s a far greater chance that it would be due to an audience member rather than one of my snakes.

The first snake I always pull out is my daughter’s large plush toy rattlesnake. I tell the audience that I’ve got a large snake in the bag, I stick my hand in and shake the rattle (always getting a comment like “Oh, there’s a rattlesnake in there!), and then I quickly whip it out. It’s always good for a laugh, breaking the tension that sometimes exists, and it gives me a gauge of how my audience is likely to react to the real animal. After I whip out the toy, we discuss why I would not have a rattlesnake or any other potentially dangerous snake with me during my presentation.

I guess I’ve rambled on enough. As you can tell, I really enjoy doing these presentations and it’s great PR for the snake world. I hope this helps you and I encourage you to give it a try.

Hello Herpgirl,

Both my wife and I held several speeches on the misconceptions people have regarding snakes. I am mainly a snake guy, so that is what I brought for the speeches when I attended high school, as well as, one of my speeches in college. The main thing you must keep in mind is many people have a true phobia of reptiles. Respect others rights when giving the talk, and hold the animals while you are delivering the speech. Yes, expect "OHHH"'s and "AHHHH"'s. Once you are finished ask if anyone would like to pet the animals. I always kept the heads restrained just incase. As a herper, I am sure you are aware of your animals striking ranges, so keep this in mind. There is a potential law suit you do not want if your animals become stressed and pops a fellow classmate. I would not allow ANYONE to hold the animals solo. Lastly, I would recommend bringing your most docile animal/s. There is no need to bring your komodo dragon to impress friends. I always brought my sweetest ball python, but certainly could have brought my 12ft female boa. Non-herpers will find your pythons, lizards, turtles, frogs, etc. most intriguing since this is not a pet they commonly interact with at their home.

Inform the people why the animals react the way they do. Tell them to pet the animals after your speech to prove it is not slimy. You know the drill. At the time I considered the reasons my parents did not like herps and took it from there when developing the speech. Cake walk!

BTW, I did receive an A on all the speeches. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Todd G.