Resources for Learning

These resources have been created for you to use while visiting John Ball Zoo. By engaging your students and/or children during their exploration of the zoo we hope they will learn more about the animals they encounter.

The tours and scavenger hunt are structured in a way that allows the students to tour through the zoo and stop at various animals to answer questions or have chaperones share information about the animals. The observation activities are resources you can use in the classroom prior to your visit to engage students in questions or hypotheses about what they'll observe while at the zoo. Each observation activity has a data sheet the students should complete while at the zoo. The data can then be analyzed back in the classroom and used in a variety of ways.

Body Coverings and Classification Tour for lower elementary
Adaptations Tour for upper elementary
Who Am I? Scavenger hunt
JBZoo Exhibit Animal List

Animal Observation Field Trip Activities

These tools mimic the ethograms, or behavior studies, that biologists use to study animals both in the wild and in zoos. Assign students to specific animals and compare data back in the classroom or have groups of students observe the same animal at different times throughout the day. It's a great way to build in math to your zoo trip!

Penguin Observations
Lion Observations
Chimpanzee Observations

Exhibit Design Activities

These observation and evaluation tools are a great addition to the Exhibit Design class we offer. Have students evaluate a habitat and do a usage study that they take back to the classroom to digest data and use to re-create a new habitat!

Exhibit Evaluation
Exhibit Use Study