Giraffe Teacher's Workshop a Huge Success!

The Wild Nature Institute has developed giraffe-themed educational materials for school children and their teachers.  The giraffe can be used to teach multiple subjects from biology, geography, and science to math and even language skills development.  We developed a storybook Juma the Giraffe, an activity book Giraffe and Friends, a poster describing the anatomy and behavior of giraffes, and accompanying lesson plans and activity guides.  We are providing free workshops for educators to facilitate effective use of these materials. These workshops help teachers meet the Tanzanian government mandate for environmental education in primary and secondary schools. 

Wild Nature Institute's Monica Bond shows the giraffe poster

On Saturday, Wild Nature Institute hosted its first workshop, for 26 teachers from 8 primary schools and 6 secondary schools—representing nearly 5,000 children in villages surrounding Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks.  The workshop was led by Lise Levy, a retired high school biology teacher with more than 32 years of experience in education in the USA.  Teachers had a wonderful time learning the lesson plans and practicing the hands-on activities that they will use in the classroom to accompany the giraffe-themed books and posters.

Lise Levy leads the teacher's workshop

Monica Bond shows Juma the Giraffe to primary school teachers

Secondary school teachers learn lesson plan that accompanies giraffe poster

Teachers have fun making giraffe masks

We are very grateful to our partners PAMS Foundation and Inyuat e MAA for helping us organize the workshop.  We also had help from Tanzania Education Corporation and Asilia Africa’s Oliver’s Camp.  Funding for the materials and workshop was generously provided by Sacramento Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Tulsa Zoo, Sarah Forslund Fund for Environmental Leadership, Safari West, and Upendo.  We are especially grateful to David Brown, Chris Barela, Megan Strauss, and Kayla Harren for helping us to create these beautiful books and posters.  Thanks also to Sophie Tremblay and Willy Lowry for taking these photos.

Teachers with Wild Nature Institute's children's books, Juma the Giraffe and Lucky the Wildebeest