14 November 2017
One of the most important missions of zoos is to create awareness of environmental issues and contribute to behavioural change in humans in order to preserve biodiversity and the endangered species that live with us. Our education department looks after around 3500 pupils each year and we are delighted to be working with one of our neighbours, the newly opened Gredby Preschool. All 5-year-olds will visit us throughout the school year and we will have different themes each time. The aim is for the children to develop a good relationship with animals at an early age and learn more about environmental issues while seeing their own role in nature.
In our first lesson, we started with the most basic ones, namely creating respect for animals and nature and developing children's empathy and understanding of animals' feelings. We saw a big difference in the children's understanding already after the first lesson. The classroom was in the middle of the zoo, in the desert house among sand cats, tigers and meerkats. To help us, we had the fantastic core values material SPEECH, which is produced by Animal Protection.
During the rest of the school year, we will meet reptiles, insects, predators and lots of other exciting things. The lessons follow the curriculum and are based on consideration, reflection and ethical dilemmas.
