Copyright postandcourier
Having live animals as props is an effective way to get an audience’s attention. When I was at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Lab, we used live specimens in our presentations whenever possible, especially when we talked to schoolchildren. We tried to make environmental education entertaining as well as informative for the audience. Sometimes the entertainment and educational elements were unplanned. After all, when you bring wild animals into a grammar school classroom, you should expect the unexpected. Getting and holding the audience’s attention is essential for a presenter, whatever the subject matter might be. We inadvertently discovered two surefire ways to capture the attention of schoolchildren during an environmental presentation. One is to eat a frog; the other, to have a tortoise attack a third grader. Our colleague Yvonne’s experience with a barking tree frog, our biggest native tree frog, was memorable for everyone. Yvonne was an expert at talking to young children. A handheld frog always grabbed their attention and was a great example of the exciting hidden biodiversity that we seldom see but that still needs to be protected. The big green frogs, which come out at night in warm weather, rely on small wetlands for breeding. Their choruses sound like hoarse dogs barking in the dark. During a talk, we let tree frogs do a little trick that everyone likes to see — walking straight up the wall using their padded toes. We stress the point that no one but us should touch the frog because they have skin secretions that can be irritating if you touch the frog then rub your eyes, nose or mouth. Yvonne had just provided this last bit of information to a classroom full of first-graders when the frog demonstrated another trick: its ability to jump. In this case, from the wall right into Yvonne's mouth! For those students, learning about barking tree frogs included the fascinating tidbit that they can make you froth at the mouth. (Fortunately for Yvonne, a restroom was directly across the hall and she was soon able to continue the presentation.)
