Having Live Animals in Class
Our Situation:
At Dover Area High School we do not have availability to keep live animals in the class or ag program. During my time teaching two animal science courses I wanted to bring some live animals into the class to give it some realia. This required more planning than meets the eye.
Planning it out:
- Two months out I coordinated visiting timeframes for animals to come to class with the people who were bringing them.
- About two weeks out I set a definite day and "snow-date" incase weather hindered our plans
- One week out I confirmed administration approval to have guest speakers with animals in the classroom.
- Two days out I sent a school wide email out, warning other teachers that animals would be coming to the school in case students would get distracted looking out windows and potentially louder noise then usual.
- The day before the visit I coordinated parking, arrival time, sign in procedures, and what is expected of the visitor and my class's expectations.
- The day of the visit I coordinate with the main office the times of arrivals for the visitor as a reminder to keep everything running smoothly.
The Actual Visit:
Students love to get their hands on actual animals, but unfortunately some students can be spoil-sports for the class. A few complained about the cold when working with the horses outside and a few complained about the poop when working with the goat inside. Overall it was worth it for the rest of the class.
When they are visiting you must find an appropriate amount of "downtime" for the students to interact with the animal and get used to seeing, feeling, and smelling the animal. Then we begin asking questions. I did this in two ways - first, I had them write down questions as a bell ringer, second I allowed them to ask questions about things they saw on the psychical animal.
Questions for Readers:
How can I maximize live animals in the classroom? I was able to have two components to every visit, the students asked questions as a large group but also had an individual activity for handling the goats and horses. What other tasks can I have them do without taking away from the experience of meeting a horse or goat for the first time?
Lisa, what a great experience to have student teaching. The planning piece always seems larger for coordinating "awesome" events/activities. Anytime you have equipment or anything where there is just a few available then there is downtime so it is good your recognize that. Is this something to fill that with? Maybe it is external part ID that students can do by looking at the animal or can your animals be a station in a station restoration? I understand that the animal coordination is already a lot of planning id addition to more planning for the class, but to get the full utilization out of the animals it is worth it. I personally struggle with that in my Plant Science class where I only have so many probes to test the hydroponic water with. I eventually had to just get pH strips so we did not have to keep rotating the probes. Something else to consider with animals, is if they are coming in, can you incorporate them into anything else? Maybe that is a livestock evaluation CDE practice or life skills students coming down to participate in the class. Animals are a great recruitment and promotional tool is utilized correctly!
ReplyDeleteWith these first time type of experiences, you can include more informal style note-taking or observations. One example is to have students document the visit from the perspective of the five senses. What did you see, smell, hear, touch, taste (recognizing that this one might not always be used). Students can note observations and process later with facts or questions. Students can also be grouped and assigned one of the areas as a focus so they summarize in writing later what they remember. Both of these are definitely more elementary level approaches, but that is often the level of agricultural understanding a lot of our students can be at when it comes to more traditional livestock animals, especially in the class you have.
ReplyDeleteLisa, what an AWESOME experience for your students! I commend your planning and preparation for the live animal visits, and for allowing your students to have the chance to interact with the animals. My students always enjoyed using live animal visits as opportunities to learn more about animal behavior, nutrition (experimenting with different feeds and treats to see which they liked best), and handling.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, and I am so glad that you are giving students the opportunity to learn with these animals. I think having animals at the school full-time (when possible) is the best, but I also understand that this may not always be possible, especially for larger animals. Maybe start with other livestock, if they are part of the curriculum. As an example, can you raise chickens, rabbits, or even fish to provide learning experiences with live animals at the school? Keep up the great work!
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