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ready-made commercial exhibits. We make every effort to emphasise the process of science, rather than the memorising of facts. The children are shown how to observe and encouraged to evaluate what they see critically.

Lessons in the classroom depend almost entirely on the local teacher and what she wants her class to gain from the visit. Some of the subjects include Mammalian, Primate or Reptile Characteristics, the Cat Family, Animal Adapta- tion, Interdependence of Plants and Animals, and Zoogeography, which includes an overall tour of the zoo. The classroom teacher also tries to distri-

bute information that will help the teachers to make balanced aquaria, dioramas, insect collec- tions, electric quiz-boards, etc.

Every school year presents changes and every effort is made to keep the Ragsdale Science Room as interesting as possible to the children. At present, more high school biology teachers are bringing their classes, and it is hoped that every Atlanta biology student will have the opportunity to visit the science classroom. Most of the groups who come to the classroom combine the visit with other parts of the curriculum, such as language, art or social studies.

Ed ucat iona I program me at Indianapolis Zoo E. F. W O O D A R D Director, Indianapolis Zoological Park, Indiana, USA

The Education Centre at Indianapolis Zoo was built during 1963-64 by the Indianapolis Humane Society at a cost of $84,000. It was dedicated to the memory of Mary Powell Crume, one of the Society’s principal benefactors. The purpose of the Centre is to give children a wider understand- ing of the animal world by teaching them about exotic animals and about the care of pets.

The building is round. Inside there is a large foyer containing special displays and stands for the distribution of free literature. There are wash rooms at either side of the foyer. The centre of the building is a round auditorium, 21.3 m in diameter with seats for 150 people. Five rooms adjoin the auditorium: the education department offices, a room to store educational materials, and the kitchen which is used to prepare refreshments or to serve dinners at meetings. Over $2,000 was spent on audio-visual equipment for the audi- torium. It includes a ceiling loudspeaker system, a microphone electric screen, self-threading movie projector, stereophonic recorder and a slide projector. Each piece ofequipment can be operated from either the speaker’s lectern or the projection booth. Recorded music can be played in the auditorium and/or the foyer while a programme is in progress.

During the summer, lectures are given on such subjects as pet care, zoo animals and animal adaptation. The lectures are given on the hour, either on request or when there are sufficient people gathered in the centre. Films are also shown daily on the half-hour, covering such subjects as training pets, life history studies of various wild animals, and evolution of human movement. Other popular features are the eductional puppet shows, teaching children that they should respect animals. During the first summer that the Centre was open, approximately 27,000 people attended educational programmes in the Centre.

In September, after the schools have reopened, school groups usually complete their visit to the zoo by attending a half-hour lecture at the Centre. Teachers can select the subject of the lecture in advance or they leave the choice of subject to the staff at the Centre. The most popular lecture is one on animal care.

After mid-October when the zoo is closed to the public, the lectures last an hour and a half and are illustrated with live animal demonstrations. According to the teacher’s requirements, the lectures can be shortened to one hour. During the spring the local Education Department arranges for schools, scouts and other groups to visit the

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zoo. Each group is given a guided tour lasting one hour, followed by an optional half-hour educational programme.

In January, coinciding with a special ‘Animals in Art’ poster contest, an animal sketching day was arranged at the Centre. Animals were displayed round the perimeter of the auditorium. After a brief introduction and explanation, the children were divided into 10 small groups and each given an animal to draw. Every four or five minutes each group moved clockwise to the next animal to draw it. By the end of the hour, each child had drawn every animal in the room and had seen a number

of animal protection panels. One outcome of the sketching session was that it made the children observe- the animals more carefully than they would have done normally.

The Centre is also used as a meeting place for the local animal care panel, a reptile study group, and juvenile centre. Special dog training shows are also held in the Centre. Animal care booklets are published by the Centre. The director of the Centre, Mr Dudley Brown, writes a regular column in the local newspaper and in 1966 a series of half-hour television shows was started.

Educational programme at Staten Island Zoo P. O ’ C O N N O R Veterinarian, Slaten Island Zoological Society, N e w York, USA

Since it was opened in June 1936, the Staten Island Zoo has concentrated a good deal of time and effort on providing a continuous educational programme for the people in the community. The main building was specially designed to include a library, laboratory, classroom, study rooms, and a large auditorium occupying over 25 per cent of the entire building area.

By writing in advance, school teachers ask for special lecture-demonstrations for their individual classes, which may range in age from pre-school children to college students. The lecture-demon- strations usually consist of a 40-minute lecture illustrated with colour slides of some of the animals currently on exhibition, while the lecturer explains the individual history of each animal, including the country from which it was imported, the purchase price, weight and age on arrival, diet, and other pertinent information. If the animal was born in captivity, or obtained as an exchange from another zoo, this is also pointed out. Life expect- ancies of animals in captivity are compared with those of the same species in the wild. The lecturer takes great trouble to explain to children why it is not a good idea to keep a wild animal as a house pet.

Following the lecture there is a 15-minute question period, after which the children tour the

zoo and see the animals they have learned about. Several lectures take place daily.

Teachers occasionally ask for a programme to be limited to animals from a specific continent that the class is currently studying, or that it be limited to mammals, or to birds, or to reptiles. When convenient, a tame animal is brought to the lecture and if the group is small, the children are allowed to handle it. The following day, when the pupils have returned to school, the teachers ask them to write letters to us, giving their impressions of the

Conducted tours ‘behind the scenes’ are arranged for smaller groups (maximum 20). They provide an opportunity to see the various working areas of the zoo which are not normally open to the public. These groups are first taken to the audi- torium for a short talk on what they are to be shown. They are then escorted through the store-room, refrigerators, mortuary, breeding room, print-shop, kitchen, laboratory, hospital and solarium, while the purposes and routines of these areas are explained to them.

Our weekly biology classes are held every Saturday morning throughout the school year and are open to a limited number of high school students who have completed a course in general science and have been selected by their teachers

zoo.