Make the Zoo Your Classroom!
The Zoo proudly offers area educators an incredible professional development opportunity!
Zoo Expeditions is a suite of graduate courses that merge the academic expertise of Miami University's Project Dragonfly with the world-class wildlife conservation of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. These courses offer educators the opportunity to develop inquiry-based teaching skills and provides them with exciting course content in a variety of subject areas. These courses are designed for both certified K-12 teachers and non-traditional educators working in the natural sciences.
Current courses include:
Summer 2013 - Sorry! Registration is currently closed for summer courses.
Issues in Cincinnati Conservation: This course will focus on conservation issues currently facing the Cincinnati-Tri-State area, and will allow participants to design their own conservation-focused inquiry projects. Zoo Expedition students will also get the opportunity to interact with professional conservation biologists working on Zoo grounds!
Fall 2013 - Register from June 1 - 30!
Plants & People: Students in this course examine the deep human connection to plants, the importance of nature and natural places to child development, and plant ecology & conservation - all while surrounded by thousands of species of plants.
Animal Behavior & Conservation: This course provides students with a wealth of content on animal behavior and conservation, while giving them the opportunity to study the Zoo's diversity of animal species.
Habitats, Evolution, & Adaptations: In this course, Zoo Expedition participants learn about the relationships of plants and animals to their surroundings, and the adaptations they have evolved to survive and flourish.
Spring
Graduate Seminar: Our spring graduate seminar centers around the Zoo's popular Barrow's Lecture Series. This course gives you the chance to learn about global conservation efforts and attend lectures led by world famous researchers, conservationists, explorers, and teachers.
The Zoo Expeditions Difference
By getting involved with Zoo Expeditions, you will find yourself surrounded by interesting questions that you are excited to answer! Together with their own students, previous Zoo Expedition participants have compared the activity of wild cats and house cats. They've wondered who plays more: gorillas or first graders. They've even explored whether caring for a plant can change how students care for their school, and more! These courses provide current content in each of the three course areas while providing educators with the skills they need to reach their students through Scientific Inquiry.
Taught by instructors from the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and Miami University, each three-hour graduate course is designed to fit the needs of working teachers and informal educators, occurring on four Saturdays at the Zoo and throughout the semester on the web. Class meetings include traditional lecture, discussion seminars, and direct investigation of the Zoo's wealth of animal and plant life. In addition to the face-to-face experiences at the Zoo, participants also engage weekly throughout the semester with instructors and course peers in an easy-to-use,
web learning community to discuss assignments, course readings, and semester-long research projects.
Course Details
Registration for Fall 2013 begins June 1 and runs through June 30. The total course fee for Zoo Expeditions is $753.46 ($498.46 to Miami, $255 to the Zoo).
Registration links will appear here when the registration window is open. Check back soon!
For information, contact Dr. Cory C. Christopher,
