Field Trip: Milwaukee County Zoo

Pathways' students studied habitats at the zoo

The first field trip of the school year, which related to the Agriculture career cluster, was a trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo. The main reason we went to the zoo was to study the habitats of all the animals. This related to habitats that we created for an invented “Switch Zoo animal.” (SwitchZoo is an App that you can combine four animals into one, creating a new species. Visit http://switchzoo.com/zoo.htm to create your own animal, and consider the type of habitat necessary to sustain your creation.)

A work in progress- a model of a
fictitious animal's habitat.

When we got to the zoo we had two guest speakers. They talked about how they care for the animals and how their habitats are specifically designed for them. This helped us understand why the animal needed the specific features of each habitat. After we had the speakers we had a chance to walk through the Zoo and find our animals to see the habitats. We then took pictures of various habitats and used them to write a compare/contrast essay. Overall the trip to the zoo was not only educational but fun, and a great experience.


By Genna Puestow