Snake Awareness Day - May 14th, 2012

[wendhend]

Given the ties between this site and that one I'm pretty sure if you post that a snake bit you someplace it shouldn't have it will make it to the Reptile Report.

Good prediction, John! This thread did make the Reptile Report. Check it out:

http://thereptilereport.com/snake-awareness-day-2/

More awareness is good!!!

[DooLittle]

Not directly related to snake awareness day (but on the same note), since I hadn't heard of this, and have had this planned since school started. But we will be taking a bp, corn, and Leo in for "show & tell" at our daughters school when they get to that animal unit. Can't remember if its March or May. I think its great that if we can show 28 little kids how neat they are, them we have 28 little kids who won't have misconceptions and be afraid of them as adults. We did the same thing last year, and all but one child was fascinated with the snakes. She would not come near her. I guess you can't reach them all. However its a great hands on learning experience!

[SpartaDog]

I'm trying to get a presentation going at my school. I asked my supervisor about it, and he told me he wants me to talk about Northern pine snakes, since they're an endangered species in the area and it's an environmental school.....but I was hoping to talk more about snake myths, prove they're not inherently deadly, and that some can make great pets, etc. So my supervisor wants me to come up with a plan on what I want to cover. Obviously I can't just list those three things, so how do you guys think I should go about this? If possible, I'll carry it over to my local library too.

[satomi325]

I'm trying to get a presentation going at my school. I asked my supervisor about it, and he told me he wants me to talk about Northern pine snakes, since they're an endangered species in the area and it's an environmental school.....but I was hoping to talk more about snake myths, prove they're not inherently deadly, and that some can make great pets, etc. So my supervisor wants me to come up with a plan on what I want to cover. Obviously I can't just list those three things, so how do you guys think I should go about this? If possible, I'll carry it over to my local library too.

How old are the students? You would have to speak in a manner where the students would understand the best.
Are you allowed to bring in live specimens? Maybe you can start off by showing a live snake and ask what the audience feels and thinks about snakes. From there you can lead off onto the myth vs fact topic.

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[SpartaDog]

How old are the students? You would have to speak in a manner where the students would understand the best.
Are you allowed to bring in live specimens? Maybe you can start off by showing a live snake and ask what the audience feels and thinks about snakes. From there you can lead off onto the myth vs fact topic.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

High school students in a marine science/technology academy. So they're pretty intelligent XD

Probably not allowed to bring in live specimens, since we tried that once and it blew up in our faces. But I definitely planned on asking about it.

I'll probably just go make a separate thread about this. Thanks!

[wendhend]

Not directly related to snake awareness day (but on the same note), since I hadn't heard of this, and have had this planned since school started. But we will be taking a bp, corn, and Leo in for "show & tell" at our daughters school when they get to that animal unit. Can't remember if its March or May. I think its great that if we can show 28 little kids how neat they are, them we have 28 little kids who won't have misconceptions and be afraid of them as adults. We did the same thing last year, and all but one child was fascinated with the snakes. She would not come near her. I guess you can't reach them all. However its a great hands on learning experience!

Hands-on school presentations are always a hit, and from my experience they always end with all (or almost all) of the kids that were initially nervous about snakes liking them and wanting to hold and /or pet them. I've had a number of kids tell me that my snake presentations were the most exciting thing that their class had done all year. And they are SO easy to do! I highly recommend setting up classroom snake presentations on or around Snake Awareness Day.

[wendhend]

High school students in a marine science/technology academy. So they're pretty intelligent XD

Probably not allowed to bring in live specimens, since we tried that once and it blew up in our faces. But I definitely planned on asking about it.

I'll probably just go make a separate thread about this. Thanks!

That's too bad about not being able to bring in live specimens. With the kids I have worked with (mostly elementary through middle school), having the live animals present and being able to touch them is what really seems to make the presentations meaningful to them. Maybe with more mature kids it wouldn't be as necessary, though.

[SpartaDog]

That's too bad about not being able to bring in live specimens. With the kids I have worked with (mostly elementary through middle school), having the live animals present and being able to touch them is what really seems to make the presentations meaningful to them. Maybe with more mature kids it wouldn't be as necessary, though.

That's why we wanted to do it. But my principal flipped out and was all "You can't bring live animals to school" and wah wah wah. Even though it was a summer program and adults were going to be present and we had the okay from two teachers and the supervisor... And they decided not to tell us until the last day of school so we had absolutely no time to fight it. But we're going to fight a lot harder for it this time.

[wendhend]

That's why we wanted to do it. But my principal flipped out and was all "You can't bring live animals to school" and wah wah wah. Even though it was a summer program and adults were going to be present and we had the okay from two teachers and the supervisor... And they decided not to tell us until the last day of school so we had absolutely no time to fight it. But we're going to fight a lot harder for it this time.

How frustrating! Maybe you could take the the kids on a field trip to somewhere off the school campus and do it in a place where having live animals present wouldn't be considered a problem? Maybe that way other members of the community could join in as well if the word got out. Just a thought.....