Eco-Explorer Graduation

We graduated from our Eco-Explorer training yesterday and got our tan vests. We went out into the park and the senior Eco-Explorers showed us how to interpret in all of the areas of the zoo. We even had two medical emergencies the first day and had to do crowd control. It was a little overwhelming, but I know I will get to know all the animals and become a great interpreter. We also did a team photo shoot. The team I work with is absolutely amazing. On another note, I also got a job offer to be an instructor at a charter school for next year. Although it has been a challenging past few months, I have been blessed with so much. I'll update next week!

Finished with Training!

Yesterday was the last day of our Eco-Explorer classroom training. Next Saturday we get to shadow our mentors out in the zoo. I am excited and nervous at the same time. We did our final training on interpretation. We also learned how to handle the education snakes. We also did a fun Easter egg hunt in the morning. I am so excited to be able to spread the message of wildlife conservation! Unfortunately, another team member quit yesterday, but we are still going to have a fantastic team. I'll update after our shadow day!

Hogle Zoo Big Six

As Eco-Explorers, we try to promote conservation for the Big Six in all of our education programs. I especially love the radiated tortoise. When you come to the zoo, you can help support these vital conservation projects by riding the conservation carousel or buying conservation wristbands. More information can be found at this link.

Eco-Explorer Updates

I decided that this blog is going to solely be about working at the zoo from now on. We only have two more training days left! We finished learning how to handle all of the tier 1 animals and have started working on some of the harder animals. The tier 1 animals were really easy animals to handle like toads and cockroaches. We are now moving on to snakes and mammals. We are also getting into our training on how to talk about climate change. We as zoo educators are trying to move away from individual choices such as recycling to bigger picture solutions like community action. I will post my final project when it is finished.