Kindergarten students at Archer Street School who have been learning about the indigenous animal species of Australia had the chance to show what they know when they participated in a videoconference with a zoo staff member in Garden City, Kan.
The Smart Board in the school's computer lab served as the portal to Whitney Buchman, the distance learning and technology manager of the Lee Richardson Zoo. Buchman's half-hour lesson focused on the animals that inhabit the rain forest, savannah and desert of Australia.
The students listened intently and responded to Buchman's quizzing based on his slideshow of emus, kangaroos, dingoes and platypuses. Part of the lesson included watching live zoo animals handled on camera, including a bearded dragon, a green tree frog and a cockatiel.
At the end of the lesson, the students had the opportunity to ask additional questions before the videoconference was concluded. Later that afternoon, the interactive learning continued as Archer Street first-grade students interacted with personnel at the Bronx Zoo.
The Lee Richardson Zoo has more than 100 species of animals that are non-native to southwest Kansas.
