Vanessa presenting
On November 11, 2014 Director Vanessa Gagne took a trip to Evans Middle School in McKinney, Texas. She was invited to speak there by their science education coordinator. The purpose of her presentation was to highlight the current lessons in the 6th grade science curriculum using elephants as a teaching tool. She began with how modern elephants evolved, the different types of modern elephants, and tied it all together with how the children can make a difference in the conservation of these amazing creatures.
Vanessa gave six, 45 minute presentations that school day to some really engaged and bright-eyed kids. She was fortunate to be able to take elephant tail hair with her for the students to touch and she talked about adaptation for the purpose of function; the hair on our heads is made out of the same stuff!
All in all the kids were very receptive and asked a ton of questions; she barely had time to go to the next slide in most cases. Vanessa reports that it was so rewarding to teach the next generation about not just the conservation of elephants, but of all animals and plants worldwide.