RE: NANFA-- bleak news for fish lovers

Hoover, Jan J WES (HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil)
Wed, 1 Dec 1999 16:16:22 -0600

>> A suggestion. Take a local school under your wing.
>>If anyone is interested in *doing* something, or has other ideas
about science and environmental education, I'd love to hear from
you.

Shireen -

You are absolutely right! Working with schools is easy, entertaining, and
rewarding.

Here's another idea: fish anatomy demos with preserved fish, bones, and/or
dissected specimens.

A few weeks ago I did a paddlefish demo for 5th and 9th graders. I showed
them preserved specimens of a shark and a boney fish and explained how they
were different from each other. Then I showed them a preserved paddlefish
and gave out a "key" with drawings of shark and boney fish characters, and
had them examine and classify the paddlefish. I also had samples of fish
scales (gar, smallmouth buffalo) set up under student microscopes and some
skeletonized fishes (shad, smallmouth buffalo)in boxes that they could
handle. For my big finale, I dissected a paddlefish. The 5th graders stayed
with me for the entire afternoon (with their teachers' permission) and 3
stayed for an extra hour after school to help clean up. They were very
excited, very interested, and they learned a lot (several of the students
have attention deficit disorder but you never would have guessed it based on
their participation).

There are a lot of advantages to doing an anatomy demonstration. They can
be done anytime of day or year. Dry specimens are easy to obtain (e.g., by
beachcombing) and can be used over and over again. And material covered
overlaps other topics studied in science and health.

A few tips I have learned:

1. Get the biggest (or most unusual) fish you can find. Size (and
morphological extreme) counts with kids. If I were going to do this again,
I might use a drum since they're big, readily available, and since there is
an excellent lab manual available for that species.

2. Have handouts that walk students through specific activities (e.g.,
finding and identifying structures, classification, etc.). My paddlefish
handout had some clip-art, a how-to-classify diagram, two short stories on
biology of the fish, and a list of "amazing facts."

3. Spread out a lot of different displays but only uncover one item at a
time.

4. Give presents. I learned this from my wife who always gives out snake
skins when she does a reptile show. I gave out patches of gar "armor"
(refuse from commercial fish processing) and some Polaroid pictures I took
of the kids at work.

5. Ignore the "squeamish." They'll get over it or they'll disapppear.
Either way, they're no problem.

6. Use lots of white sheets, white enamel pans, clean dissecting
instruments, etc. It really sets the mood.

7. Pass out surgical (non-latex) gloves for everybody. I cannot emphasize
this point enough. When kids puts on gloves (or a labcoat), they are ready
to BE scientists.

Didn't mean to ramble, but I'm still enthusiastic about the response I got.

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/----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org