Visit 2 -- Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them

Deep Apologies. This visit happened in October 21, 2014. I have been AWFUL at the blogging side of this great project.


The world we live in is almost totally fake. I don't mean that in some kind of dramatic, new agey, depressing way. I simply mean what we do is unnatural. We don't deal with averse weather conditions in our habitats. It dropped below freezing here in Provo last night, and my sleep was only disturbed by the sound of my crying child which I got up to feed with a plastic bottle of food. I am not, never have, and probably never will be responsible for making my own shelter for more than a few days at a  time, and even that will be of my own choice to go camping, not out of need. Almost anywhere I move in the world, I can live without fear of death from the elements because I can adapt to the environment with tools that other creatures like me have created.

That ability to adapt is one of the biggest differences between humans and most other creatures on earth. That's what we explored last Tuesday.

I started our group activity by asking the students what kinds of things they did on cold days and having them show me a frozen image or a quick silent movement of what they did to get ready. Many students talked about putting on extra layers, and a few mentioned things like drinking a big cup of hot chocolate or eating waffles that would warm them up. Then we all pretended to be asleep at our desks. When "our mom" called us and told us to get ready for school we all did different things to show we were getting ready.

Some of the students acted as if they were rushing downstairs to eat breakfast. The things they ate varied widely and all looked delicious. Others knew that it was going to be a cold one, so they took time to put on extra clothing. Each of the students finished and went to go wait outside for the bus. As they stood outside, the wind blew and they indicated their chill through shivering, bundling up tighter and standing in groups. When they arrived at school, Ms. Brown had determined to make the room as warm as possible to counteract the cold outside. Students stripped their extra jackets and winter gear, and walked faintly to their desks. They then acted out how they would respond to the heat. Some begged Ms. Brown to turn it down. Others drank lots of water. Each knew that in order to survive their school day in a 110 degree environment, they would need to adapt.

When the students reached this point, I demonstrated for them how to give a report about a certain animal. I chose to use the Emperor Penguin. I sat in the front and put on my news reporter hat, and explained a few interesting facts about the Penguins. Then I allowed the students to ask questions, and if I didn't know, I indicated that I'd find out them. We also acted what penguins must do to survive the arctic winters. Many of them will huddle together around the smallest of the penguins to protect them from the fierce winds. We had our smallest stand in the middle and we crowded around them as the wind blew fiercely through Ms. Brown's class.

Then, each student had the chance to report on their own animals. I had selected animals from different biomes to help the students get a feel for what a wide variety of animals there were and how they survived in different settings.

Ms. Brown set up the partnerships of students and they read a couple of paragraphs about each animal. As they read, they each were to select a question about the animal that they could make up based on the information they were given, just like in a news report. The students then presented their animals to one another by having each partner ask the other a question like in a news report.

Below is the selection of animals that students could choose from

Dawn Bat
Red Fox
Mongolian Gerbil
Banded Gila Monster
Toco Toucan


Each of the students did a stellar job. Until Next time!