That Tracks: The Next Generation As Conservationists

What does it take to make a whole city of kids care about conservation? Rosie explains.

0:00 Introduction
0:44 Bringing real-world science into classrooms
3:06 The importance of intentional curriculum design
3:25 Zoo conservation work with Chicago Public Schools
5:09 Building the relationship with schools
8:43 Field trips and Zoo Explorers program
9:00 Scholarships and accessibility
9:43 Conservation Camp 
12:08 Zoo Crew 
12:30 What students say and do that surprises us
15:38 Leave No Trace and program evolution
17:13 Partners in Fieldwork Student Expo
17:25 The future of learning programs at Lincoln Park Zoo
18:22 What a great day looks like for Rosie
21:41 Who is Rosie?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome to That Tracks, Lincoln Park Zoo's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I'm Jillian Rader and today with me we have I'm Rosie Arnold. I supervise student and teacher programs and camp programs at the zoo.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And today we're talking all about learning programs at the zoo from four-year-olds to those entering college and the workforce and also talking about their impact on the environment and becoming environmental stewards themselves with real conservation action. So, Rosie, Lincoln Park Zoo has a ton of student programs, teacher programs, and education is a huge part of our mission. Can you share a bit about some of the programs and your philosophy about really giving those students real life experiences?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yeah, so because Lincoln Park Zoo is such a rich environment for students to learn from, and because we do work all across Chicago and really across the world, if you think about it. So with our learning programs, we want to give students as many opportunities as possible to participate in those real-world experiences. So we want to give kids chances to kind of dig into a lot of the same things that our scientists are exploring. So we have a program called Partners in Field Work. It's been around for quite a long time actually, where high school students get to do work that's really inspired by the zoo's Urban Wildlife Institute. So with that, students are learning all about urban wildlife that live right here in Chicago. They get to use a lot of the same tools that our urban wildlife scientists are using. We provide each teacher that's participating with a field camera or a trail camera that's motion activated. They get to use a bat monitor. We also give them binoculars so they can do bird surveys. So they're investigating all of the same species or a lot of the same species that the urban wildlife scientists are investigating. And over the course of the year, they get to do a project designed around a question that they come up with themselves investigating urban wildlife and what they're doing in Chicago and really getting to see like what wildlife are living right around their school. So that's one example of students getting to interact with like the real thing in the same way that our scientists are. We also have a new program called Chicago Bird Champions that we're really excited about. That in that program, students in grades three to five are investigating the driving question of how could we make Chicago safer for birds, particularly as they're migrating through our city. Because of course, the the urban environment of Chicago is challenging for a lot of birds because they can't perceive the glass in the same way that human eyes can. So unfortunately, window strikes are a problem. So with that program, we're having students kind of dig into that question and inviting them to advocate for birds in their neighborhood. So those are just a couple examples of ways that we are getting kids opportunities to kind of engage with the real stuff going on around them.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, I think you can tell from those examples, but we've also had conversations about intentionality and you know, not just giving curriculum to give it, but really working it into places that make sense and are natural for the teachers and for the students. So do you have an example of perhaps one of those opportunities that have come up?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, so we we want to always make sure that we are meaningfully um including the zoo into the student experience. So um so making sure that whatever they're doing is not just like a thing to do, but is really contributing to what they're learning in the classroom. They're able to make those connections. Um, so one fun example that we had was uh actually in the Chicago Public Schools curriculum that's available to teachers across the district. Um, in the world languages section, actually, there was uh a piece where high school or students learning high school French had uh a section of their curriculum where they were learning about conservation in French-speaking countries. And uh the zoo has a long-standing program in the Gualago Triangle in the Republic of Congo, where one of their primary languages is French. So we were able to include into the core curriculum a section where students are learning about the work of the zoo to preserve uh ape habitat in the Republic of Congo, uh, and able to kind of like learn about what the zoo is doing there, but all within the context of high school French of all places.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I won't make you speak French. Please don't.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Okay, so we also have um you mentioned Chicago Public Schools, that's the public school district here in Chicago. Um, and Lincoln Park Zoo has been around for over 150 years, and I think people perhaps don't realize or sometimes forget that we're just so ingrained in all of Chicago. And so, can you share more about our relationship with CPS and how that sort of interfaces in your life here at the zoo?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, yeah, working with the school district is a really big part of my job. So um, when uh I first started at the zoo right before COVID happened, so um, coming out of that, it was really important for me to try to um reestablish that relationship and make sure that whatever we were gonna do moving forward, where you know everyone's environment is changed, right? It's a whole new world. So trying to figure out what we could do moving forward that would be really meaningful for both sides. Um, and so one of the things that we started doing together was teacher professional learning. So I've developed some really good relationships with folks in the district who are responsible for offering teacher PD, professional learning opportunities for teachers. And so over the course of the last several years, we've been able to partner and offer workshops for teachers where they can come dig into something in the curriculum that is important to the CPS learning goals. And then I have been able to kind of take a look at the curriculum, figure out where are the points of overlap, where are the areas where the zoo is doing something that would meaningfully support the learning that the students are doing in that particular area. So we we work together to offer these days where basically the CPS folks take half the day to really dig into whatever it is that they are digging into, and then my team comes in and then we offer opportunities for teachers to learn about opportunities at the zoo that would enrich that learning experience. We also will often bring in some of our scientists or different zoo experts that will be able to provide some learning for the teachers themselves. It's really important to me that any professional learning that we do with teachers gives them an opportunity to participate as learners as well, kind of take their teacher hat off for a second and just kind of be learners. Um we give them opportunities to learn from our experts, to think about ways they would apply a zoo experience with their students and ways that they can connect all of it together to create a really strong learning experience for their kids.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Great. We talked a lot about how the zoo is in classrooms and in curriculums. Yeah, but what about students coming to the zoo? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, we we serve thousands of students each year here at the zoo. Um everything from you know your classic field trip where you get to just sort of explore the zoo with your classmates for the day. We also offer programs, our zoo explorers programs are great opportunities for connection to the academic standards, the classroom learning, all of that. We offer those programs for at least one for every grade level, um, so that depending on what the teachers are teaching in the classroom at the time, they can pick an experience that will be a really good thing to kind of like make whatever that was in the classroom kind of come alive, hopefully. So with that, kids are able to do things like, you know, in younger grades, they're learning about classification. They're learning about how to make a good observation. Um, in older grades, they might be kind of leveling up to the point where they're able to think about how they might design a lion habitat if it were up to them, um, based on like what does the animal need and what are the resources that are available, that sort of thing. Um, all like all sorts of opportunities for kids to learn about different things that are going on at the zoo and connect them back with the classroom. All that can happen while they're here on a field trip.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Awesome. And we have um scholarships, and I think accessibility is a huge part of our vision and mission. Um, can you talk a little bit about how you know we talked about CPS, but are there other schools or students, how do they get involved, what scholarships might be available?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Sure. So for Zoo Explorers, that that field trip program where kids are coming to the zoo and doing a program on grounds, um, we have a limited, unfortunately, but we do have a pretty good limited number of scholarships that we're able to offer to schools each year. You do not have to be in Chicago public schools in order to participate in that. Um, so with that, it's it's something we open up each semester so that we can provide those experiences to schools that have that need free of charge, and then we also will be able to offer bus scholarships to some of those schools so we can hopefully remove all of the barriers to entry so that um kids can come and and really learn from this place. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Because Lincoln Park Zoo is free, of course, but there are of course like the bus expenses and things like that. So I'm glad we're able to offer that. Um, we are also coming up on camp season here, so we have hundreds of students here every summer, and I've heard firsthand from so many folks about how formative of an experience that is. Can you give just like a little bit of highlights of what camp is and what that experience is like every summer?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yes. So our team offers two different camp programs. So kids that are as young as four years old, all the way to those that are entering fifth grade, get to participate in conservation camp. Those are week-long day camp programs where kids are with us from about nine to three each day. And we offer different themes, and each theme involves kids doing different activities on zoo grounds. They're spending a lot of time out on grounds, outdoors. We also offer opportunities for kids to have some free play time because it's it's summer. We want kids to still have the opportunity to kind of run around in a safe way and do whatever it is that they want to do at that time. Um, but they're also, of course, learning about animals, they're meeting our zoo experts. Sometimes they get to go behind the scenes. We're really excited for this summer where we are going to be able to take some of our kids behind the scenes at uh Beavers for the first time. So that'll be really fun. Um, and then for our older campers, our middle school campers, they are participating in something called Zoo Crew. That's a two-week-long program. Um, with that one, it's a lot of the same types of things because they're still exploring the zoo, they're still learning from our experts. We're leveling up that content, though, of course, so that they're, you know, doing things that are more age appropriate. Um, they're thinking about things like conservation challenges and you know, things they might be able to do at home in their community, at their school that might be able to help with some of those conservation challenges. Um, they also get to go on field trips. They get to spend one evening of their program uh participating in a late stay, so they're here after zoo hours. Um, so it's a really cool program, really cool opportunities for kids to come be at the zoo with their peers, having a lot of fun, um, and hopefully, you know, continuing to develop in a way that's really fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Cool. And put you on the spot a little bit here. But they they say that kids say the darnest things, but they're also very insightful and very intuitive. So I'm just curious over your time, is there a story or an example of something where, like, maybe we took something from a student and turned it into action, or you were just surprised by their insight into something?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Ooh, so I can't think of any example right now off the top of my head, but I know something I'm looking forward to for this summer of seeing what kids say. So we know that um, also at camp, um, one of the things that is uh a big zoo value or big zoo camp value that really guides our um the way we the way we manage all of our campers at camp is that we ask all of our campers to respect the pony. Pony stands for property, others, nature, and yourself. So essentially, if a kid at camp is respecting the pony, we are good. We got no issues. Um, but one of the things that we have noticed, and we've heard from some of our colleagues in other departments, is that sometimes asking all of our guests across the zoo, our public guests to respect the pony is a little bit more challenging. And um our our horticulture team has expressed to me that sometimes folks love and appreciate the plants that we have here so much that they want to pick some of them to take them home. Of course, we would prefer that they would remain here. Um, so we're issuing a challenge to our campers this summer to ask them how they might help us teach others across the zoo to also respect the pony, particularly the N in nature, where we can hopefully leave nature here at the zoo, um, or leave that nature here at the zoo, um, so that it can continue to grow. So we're hoping for some interesting things out of that, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

All right. I think that's actually a really interesting approach because as we've over the course of the even in my time here, we've sort of changed the way that we approach working with nature. I feel like a lot of the programs and things used to be like go collect a pine cone, go do this or that. And I feel like we've changed to be more leave leave no trace practices. Can you talk about how like philosophically maybe some of your programs have changed or evolved over time, knowing like things like respecting nature are a larger part of our conversations?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yeah, so I mean, essentially, like once you once you pick a plant, especially if you're picking a flower or picking a leaf off of a tree, that thing can no longer, that thing is no longer alive, essentially. So we are trying to keep the living things alive as much as possible. So with that though, that means that like if we need natural materials for a project or an activity, we're gonna do our best to I'm thinking of like a nature journaling activity that I do sometimes where um every every person participating has to have a leaf. And so when I do that, I'm always trying to make sure that I am I'm only using leaves that have already fallen to the ground. I want to leave leave the leaves on the tree so that they can continue to um, you know, do what they're supposed to do as part of that organism. Um and then once those leaves fall, then I can use them. Um so basically we're just trying to instill that same value, that same drive to to keep the living things alive with our with our students and our even our teacher participants um as much as we can.

unknown 15:38

Great.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

In previous conversations, you've talked about the desire for students just to like feel proud of themselves and sort of have some ownership of their learning and the impact they're making on this world. Do you have a certain program or story about how that how you see that coming to life?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah, I mean, I always say that one of my favorite days of the year is the day in the spring when we have our Partners in Field Work Student Expo. So, with that, the the students that I mentioned earlier that have spent the entire school year doing a research project on urban wildlife. Um, the the end result of that program is that the students will create a research project that they put into a uh a poster, and we have a big uh evening event where students or selected students from each school are able to come to the zoo and we have this big reception for them, and they get to show off their work in sort of a science fair type of event where we've got food and guest speakers, and it's just a really, really lovely event. But my favorite thing is seeing the students' research posters, we get them professionally printed, and the students will come and they will stand by their posters, and we'll have zoo staff and family members and you know folks from the community that will come and just talk to the students about their work. And they're they're just usually so excited to be here, to have been chosen to represent their school. Um, it's just a really, really great event, and I I love seeing the kids that come. That's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Um, what do you think is the future of either learning programs at the zoo or curriculum in Chicago? Kind of kind of be anything. But what do you see happening over the course of the next five or ten years?

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Well, I have grand plans. We'll see if they get to actually come to fruition. Um, but I would I would love to be able to expand what we do with schools so that we can, yeah, truly have a meaningful presence in the school, a formal education ecosystem across across the city. I think there's so much interest, so much desire for the types of programs that we can offer. Um but we just, you know, there's only so many of us and so many hours in the day. So I I think that the sky is really the limit, um, but I would love to be able to offer more programs to more students because the resources of the zoo, like this place offers such a wonderful learning it learning environment for students, and there's so many rich connections that can be made across the curriculum, not just science, um, that I just think there's we've we've not hit anywhere near the limit of our potential.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

So, working at a zoo, we are with living creatures all of the time, and for many people they think of the animals or the plants that you've talked about, but you are also working with people every day. And so, as someone who's working with students and teachers and kids, what does like a great day look like? What is a win look like for you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Um, so I usually say that because we work with such really different audiences, we work with kids from as little as four years old all the way to kids that are entering college or you know, moving on to the next phase of their education or career. We also work with teachers. So I usually the way I kind of try to frame it is that I would like every participant in one of our programs to experience or learn something that will help them move a little bit closer to a person who will be able to make decisions that will be able to positively affect the world around them. And that can look in a like a lot of different things. Um, for little kids, it's things as as simple as, you know, they might have, you know, tossed their gum wrapper on the ground, but now they're not gonna do that and they're gonna, you know, put it in the trash in the proper way. For adults, for the teachers we work with, I love seeing when they are really excited about some new connection they can make in their curriculum that will get their kids excited about learning. Um, so it's it's that whole spread in between. But as long as we're helping to move people a little bit further along in that path towards, yeah, being able to make really good decisions that are going to be positive for the world, like that's that's all I'm looking for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

But it's hard to know. Hard to know, hard to measure, and also little actions can make huge change. Right. So I think also reminding folks like your gum wrapper, it's a small thing, but over time it can really change.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Definitely, definitely. And sometimes we don't know. That's the thing, too, in what in what we do. Um, sometimes in in informal learning, you don't necessarily know the impact that you have because you're part of a huge overall learning ecosystem of a person's life. So they might have an experience here, but then they're not gonna necessarily think about it again until you know three, four years down the line when they see something else and they're like, oh wait, that thing that I saw at the zoo, like that connects to this and so forth, and so on and so forth. So it's it's hard to know, but but we we have faith that what we're doing really does positively impact people.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

And I think that's also something we've talked about um previously is that you know the zoo is trying to offer insights into yes, science, but also other areas of the zoo too. People think maybe you can only be a zoo keeper or a scientist. And one thing we've talked about is like you can be an ecologist, you can be an educator, you can be anything here at the zoo, and so I think that's a huge part of what I've seen come from that too. And and sometimes it's not until someone's interviewing for a job, right? Where they say, like, oh, I went to zoo camp. Exactly. Welcome back. Yep, welcome back, happy you're here. For me, those are like the huge wins, too. It's just like hearing someone years later come back from a camp or a teen program and see how they're impacting the world. So it's very cool, yeah. All right, so Rosie, we he we've heard all about your work here at the zoo, but who is Rosie outside of the zoo? What do you do for fun? What brings you joy?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yeah, so um a lot of things bring me joy. Uh I am an aunt of seven, so I love being uh or you know, trying to be the world's greatest aunt. Um, those little nuggets give me a lot of joy. Um I also really love to travel. Um, you know, I love you know going to different countries, different states, and and just kind of seeing what else is out there, experiencing the new things that way. Um, I love to cook. Um I'm a big reader.

unknown 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I heard you're pretty good at trivia as well. I am pretty darn good at trivia, yes. There's a lot of random stuff up in this brain. So yeah, I'm pretty good at trivia. And I that's where my competitiveness comes up. Let's get perfect.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. This is great. And if people want to learn more about your programs, where can they go?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Absolutely. So most everything should be available on our website. Absolutely.