Scientist in Training (Grades 5-8)

This program series is designed for your budding scientist to grow science knowledge and skills through experiences with wildlife and animals in the Zoo. From exploring adaptations for flight to animal behaviors and care, each week participants explore Zoo exhibits, conduct experiments, and meet animals and Zoo staff.

• Flights of Fancy
  Birds and bats might fly, but some squirrels glide. Explore how animals move through the sky and learn more about the aerodynamics of flight.
  
  
• Animal Engineers 
  Bees, birds and even bison have something amazing in common - they are great engineers! Discover how animals move, design, and build to provide themselves with the tools and shelters they need to survive in their ecosystem.
  
  
• On the Move 
  Jump, hop, run or walk. Animals are adapted to move in all sorts of ways. Explore the mechanics of animal movement through experiments and up close animal studies.

• Oh Behave
  Animals behave in all sorts of ways. Here in the Zoo, keepers make sure that animals have lots of exciting experiences. Discover how scientists study animal behavior and use that information so that keepers can design fun and even delicious things to enrich the experiences of our Zoo animals.

• If You Build It?
  Caring for our Zoo animals starts with building an amazing space for them to live. Through a study of wild animal habitats, learn how to design a Zoo habitat that provides all of the essentials that an animal needs to live well at the Zoo.

• Keeping It Real
  No matter how they move and behave or their amazing habitats, animals at the Zoo rely on the care and attention of our zookeeper staff. Do you have what it takes to be zookeeper? Meet one and spend some time doing what they do in the Zoo.

This program is for children in 5th - 8th grades.