Arizona campers learn about world around them by exploring Phoenix Zoo

PHOENIX — Students visiting the Phoenix Zoo this summer are getting hands-on experience learning about animals, plants and the environment.

Camp Zoo recently launched its yearly summer series of weeklong classes serving kindergarteners through eighth graders.

Taking one of these classes is great for a child’s confidence, according to Leslie Bell, the learning engagement manager at Camp Zoo.

“The Sonoran Desert has such a huge amount of biodiversity and just getting to see that moment, that click in their minds of like, ‘Oh, these all go together,'” Bell told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

As children grow their knowledge about the natural world, they’re able to start recognizing the unique animals and plants in their own backyards, she added.

How do classes at Camp Zoo work?

Each grade level has its own curriculum with various hand-on activities, such as conservation lessons, animal encounters, nature lasses and projects that teach them about what it’s like to work in zoos.

Camp zoo instructor Kami Lee says campers also learn about biology by comparing the way they walk to the unique ways animals move.

“They do this project in third and fourth grade where they get to create their own critter,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that they have to look at, like the animals here at the zoo, and think, ‘Oh, they need shelter, they need food, they need water, they need enrichment.’ All of these other different aspects that they might not have thought about beforehand.”

Lee also said it’s a great way to teach children empathy and cultivate interests that can lead to future careers.

“It’s so important for them to have that information because then they come to not only just appreciate and observe, which can have so many benefits for their life, but also to be able to really understand how they can make an impact,” Lee said.

Camp Zoo student says it’s fun to learn about plants native to Sonoran Desert

Joan is an 8-year-old camper who said she especially enjoyed the lessons about horticulture, which refers to the study of plant cultivation.

Horticulture day at Camp Zoo gives kids a hands-on look at plant life and sustainability. Campers pot their own plants, craft colorful tissue paper flowers and mold clay seed balls packed with seeds.

These seed balls are tough enough to resist being eaten by animals, but once the rain comes, the clay dissolves, allowing the seeds to sprout and bring new life to the desert.

Joan said the daylong class taught her how to identify the plants she sees everyday.

“The ones that are native here, I didn’t know all of them before,” Joan said. “We have quite a few native plants here. We have a lot of citruses and then we have a Palo Verde.”

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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