Web Blurb - REU Conservation Medicine
June 6, 2006
As part of the REU grant I was asked to present an education module that incorporated our research in the laboratory to school children. I chose Ms. Gray’s 4th grade class at Kipps Elementary School in Blacksburg, Virginia to come and speak to about conservation medicine. Ms. Gray was very excited to incorporate my visit as she had just finished a unit about animal – human interactions and what makes up a habitat. On Tuesday, June 6, 2006 I traveled to the elementary school with my co-workers to speak to 45 students. Armed with a PowerPoint “presentation,” Velcro board, student worksheets, and stickers I was ready to teach the students how they could help out in the world of conservation medicine. I hesitate to say that I had a full blown presentation on PowerPoint because I only used it to emphasize certain points. The majority of my presentation consisted of merely talking with the students. I wanted to stay away from a formal lecture as fourth graders itching to start summer break might not pay as close attention. Throughout the lecture I kept repeating that “we are not alone in this world and that our actions affect everything around us.” This was the big picture that I hoped the students would take away from the presentation. I educated the listeners about how the environment, animals, and humans are all interconnected. I spoke about how persons involved in conservation medicine worked together and utilized everyone’s expertise to work out a problem and come to a solution. After my talk I had the students help me build the “big picture” with the use of a Velcro board and wooden shapes. We built a chimpanzee habitat and a human habitat and I explained how the two could co-exist as long as the humans were away of their actions. Finally I helped the students on a simple worksheet about conservation medicine and then went over ways they could be involved in keeping the environment, animals, and humans healthy.
The students seemed to have an enjoyable time hearing me speak and asked many many many questions! Ms. Gray wrote with “you can always tell how interested students are based on how many questions they have and how they connect the info to their own lives.” It was a wonderful experience for me as well as I got to speak about what I’m passionate about. If one student walked away with a better understanding about their impact in the world around them then I believe this presentation was successful!