Page 25 - Gateways_FALL 2024

“Any discipline can bring this into their classroom. expedition focused on Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Great
KOALA
We are taking the conservation angle and putting it Bear Wilderness, where inhabitants include polar bears,
in English, math, and history classes—it’s a more brown bears, bison, and bald eagles. This was followed
effective way of getting our conservation by a two-day “Variety Expedition” adventure that
message across.” combined educator professional development to sup-
An important goal of the programs is to connect port student learning with exploration of The Swamp,
teachers, particularly teachers from under-resourced The Living Coast, Hamill Family Wild Encounters,
school districts, with other programs at the Zoo, Hamill Family Play Zoo, and other animal habitats
such as our King Conservation Leadership Academy, throughout the Zoo.
which provides free S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, As teachers learned about the animals, they
Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education to explored a variety of inquiry-based, student-centered
students and families. teaching strategies they could apply in their classroom
across subject areas.
Teaching Safari Basics The Teaching Safari uses the latest research-based
teaching methodologies and is informed by the
The Teaching Safari offers two session a year, in Common Core and The Next Generation Science
the spring and the fall. Each session enrolls two Standards (NGSS). Besides providing content
cohorts—an early elementary through 5 grade standards, or what students are expected to know
th
cohort and a middle and high school cohort. at the end of each grade level, K-12, the standards
Teacher participants spend four full days on-site at embody a shift in how teachers teach.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago and attend two 1-hour virtual
sessions. The Fall 2023 Safari began with a two-day

25
BROOKFIELD ZOO CHICAGO | FALL 2024 25