Shadowing

In order to learn more about the Phoenix Zoo from the perspective of a paid employee, I chose to shadow Jessica, a trail guide, last week. I was able to follow her throughout her day on both Tuesday and Thursday, each day for four hours. While Jessica has certain responsibilities and duties that remain the same everyday, each of her days at the zoo is quite a bit different. On Tuesday, I met up with her at Monkey Village where she was working at the entrance, informing guests about the experience in which they are about to take part. Jessica’s responsibility is to inform guests of the rules as well as watch out for any problematic behavior or situations, such as guests with food or drinks that they might try and feed the animals. About an hour of her time at Monkey Village is spent at the door, until she rotates with other zoo trail guides in the enclosure. Next, she moves into the exhibit and monitors the behavior of the guests and monkeys as well as answers any questions the guests might have. Depending on how busy the zoo is, Jessica might spend as many as six hours at Monkey Village, or she moves to different exhibits when the zoo is less crowded. On Thursday, we spent time at Wallaby Walkabout, an exhibit much like Monkey Village, where guests walk through the wallaby exhibit. The responsibility of the trail guides at this exhibit is to monitor the behavior of the guests and ensure that they are respecting the wallabies and not feeding or teasing them. Jessica is also responsible for knowing information about the animals at the various zoo exhibits and will often do impromptu information sessions using a microphone and speaker so that the guests are able to learn about the animals in a more formal presentation. These are just a few of Jessica’s responsibilities as a trail guide. From shadowing her, I was able to learn more about guest and animal behavior, as well as animal information that I had not previously acquired. It was exciting to learn about her enthusiasm for her job, and her overall gratitude to her position. You can learn a lot about a company by asking their paid employees, and I was happy to learn that she really did enjoy her job and the company that she works for.

Week 9

In order to showcase my skills, I created an on-line resume with links to more information about various aspects of my resume. Below is a link to my resume:

https://sites.google.com/a/asu.edu/anna-russell/

Career

My applied study site reflects my future career goals appropriately, as I hope to teach science in many different ways than simply the traditional classroom experience. Experiential education is, in my opinion, the best way to learn and it involves learning by actually participating directly with the material. Rather than reading about otters in a textbook or watching videos about their social behavior, it is much more effective for children to, if possible, witness these lessons first hand. The Phoenix Zoo offers a multitude of opportunities for experiential education, which is exactly where I see my career heading in the future. I am currently in the process of applying to the graduate program here at ASU which integrates teacher certification with a Master’s degree in education. Ideally, I would love to learn more about classroom teaching by working with middle school students, teaching science for a few years. Then, I would like to study the difference hands on learning makes for middle school students by working with an organization such as the Phoenix Zoo in an outreach education program. The Phoenix Zoo would be a great place for me to begin as their outreach program is, in my opinion, one of the best in the area. Somewhere in the future, I would like to write a textbook for teachers involving ways to teach science, specifically biology, through hands on techniques beyond the classroom laboratory. My applied study site is providing me with great experience and knowledge about wildlife education and experiential learning. The skills I am beginning to learn involve public speaking, critical analysis of educational programs, and age appropriate lessons and concepts related to the animals at the zoo. Education is definitely where my future lies and I hope to make a difference in the way students learn science, as it has traditionally been a difficult subject for many – especially young girls. It is difficult to determine anything that I dislike about my study site, as I have had such a great experience so far. If anything, I would like more opportunity to work directly with children so that I can learn, for myself, which educational strategies work best at a zoological facility.