Potter Park's Big Zoo Lesson makes big return after pandemic shutdown

LANSING — "What does endangered mean?"

The hands darted up among the Red Cedar Elementary students visiting Potter Park Zoo. Jill Garnett, enrichment coordinator for the BIG Zoo Lesson, called on a student seated before her.

“Endangered means there’s not many left," one answered.

"And what does it mean when there’s none left?" Garnett asked.

Another student, too excited to wait to be called on, yelled out: "Extinct!"

Some students' social graces may have rusted during the pandemic, while Potter Park's beloved Big Zoo Lesson was on hiatus. The program, where students spend a week learning at the zoo, returned last fall. For many students it's both an introduction to animal science and their first field trip in two years, maybe ever.

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The program, which has run since 2000, places students in small observation groups to study one species over the course of the week through lessons on conservation, animal biology and how a zoo functions.

The children also spend time creating enrichment aides — a zoological term for what are basically animal toys — like puzzle feeders for spider monkeys.

The social expectations of visiting the zoo haven’t quite sunk in yet for students, said Margaret Holtschlag, creator of the Big Zoo Lesson. Some teachers have expressed concerns that students need more guidance on waiting to ask questions or holding onto a comment.

”We learn those things gradually, over a long time,” Holtschlag said. “But with that break the pandemic caused, we have to pick that up again.”

To help, Stephanie Krumbach, the students' teacher at Red Cedar, has them keep a dedicated page in their notebooks for "wows and wonders." Questions later find their way onto sticky notes in their classroom for the week.

Their burning questions include: Can (a) rhino jump? Why is a lion so loud? Why do bats like the dark?

The sticky notes help balance a positive space for curiosity while also keeping the show on the road, Krumbach said.

"I'm trying to mold their will without breaking their spirit," she said.

Some rules from the pandemic remain, including masking and sanitizing when the students make toys for COVID-susceptible animals like the cotton top tamarin.

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“The really big thing that overlays all of the detail kind of stuff is how good it feels to have kids learning again," Holtschlag said.

The break in Big Zoo lessons gave staff time to revise some curriculum, which had been mostly unchanged since the program's launch in 2000. They now include a renewed focus on conservation, including the endangered and extinction talk as an introduction to zoo animal reproduction.

On a recent Wednesday, students observed spider monkeys, penguins, tamarins and other animals in small groups. While they worked, Krumbach wrote out a quote from Jane Goodall on a large paper chart in their classroom.

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This is Krumbach's eighth year bringing a class to the Big Zoo Lesson. She returned to in-person teaching this semester from a quarantine support role to ensure that Red Cedar’s class would be able to attend after their previous teacher left last winter.

It's a flex year when it comes to benchmarks and curriculum, Krumbach said, placing emphasis on building the habit of being fully back and learning. She's used that freedom to do more earth science and hands-on learning with the students. The Big Zoo Lesson is the culmination.

"If kids live science, then they become scientists," she said.

Matt Himmelspach, Krumbach’s co-teacher with the group and a longterm substitute, said he’s seen the students get a lot out of the Big Zoo Lesson's immersion.

“When they see the animals, I think it makes more sense," Himmelspach said. "I don’t know if they’re retaining it as well when I just talk about it.”

For 10-year-old Carter McKinney, the focus of the trip was clear: new animal facts.

McKinney, whose mom and Potter Park chaperone Ta'Shara Francis-Brown takes him to the zoo in every city they visit, peppered his small group's observation time in front of the red pandas with extra tidbits not listed on the signs.

"Mom, they can live up to 10 or 15 years if they're in a nice enclosure like this," McKinney said while jotting down notes in his composition book. "And if they feel threatened, they go up on their back legs and hiss."

Francis-Brown said it was hard to get Carter and her younger son excited about virtual learning during the height of COVID school closures. But at BIG Zoo Lesson, McKinney and his animal facts are a perfect fit.

"He loves it," she said. "He's been talking about it all week."

Contact reporter Annabel Aguiar at aaguiar@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @annabelaguiar.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Potter Park's Big Zoo Lesson: 22 years of immersive zoology