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.

Field Trip Activities

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
Ethogram, Animal Study Sheet
Ethogram with Instructions

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

Virtual Safari Activities

These materials were created to be used in coordination with John Ball Zoo's Virtual Safaris for the public and Distance Learning programs created for schools.

Enrichment Design Worksheet
Exhibit Design Worksheet

Virtual Habitat Tours

Explore John Ball Zoo animal habitats from anywhere! Students are able to direct where they go and learn more with information tabs and embedded videos that include training sessions and enrichment delivery along with conservation information. Utilize the animal observation activities above, download the journal prompts below the habitat links, or create your own journal prompts for students. Tours were created with Virtual Tour Guys.

Meerkats & Porcupines

Brown Bear

Red Panda

Observation Journal