This paper reports the results of a survey designed to examine trends in zoo and aquarium field trip attendance, as well as the perceptions and practices of zoo and aquarium educators. The results suggest that field trip attendance is down at most zoos and aquariums over the last five years, but increased during 2009 over 2008 at about half of the institutions reporting data. The results obtained here, combined with those reported in the published literature, suggest that zoo and aquarium educators must continue to provide classroom teachers with professional development opportunities if field trips are to remain an educationally-relevant part of the K-12 experience.

People Nicholas J. Meiers Researcher

Number and percent of zoo and aquarium educators mentioning a particular theme for their visit (n=37).

Related Links Association of Zoos and Aquariums International Zoo Educator’s Association

Downloads Trends and Perceptions in Zoo and Aquarium Field Trips: A Survey-Based Study Designing Effective Field Trips at Zoos and Aquariums – A Literature Review

For this project I returned to Old Providence for almost a month over J-term with a Garmin GPS to ground-truth information I had acquired from CORALINA (the government-sponsored Corporation for the Sustainable Development of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina) and to create my own more accurate dataset. I recorded data for all of the roads, dirt roads, sidewalks and trails on the island, as well as important waypoints, and compiled a map of this information, populated areas, the biosphere reserve, and English nomenclature—which I fact-checked with native islanders.

People Alison DeGraff Cartographer and Researcher

Related Links Old Providence and Santa Catalina Map Old Providence and Santa Catalina Brochure

Downloads DeGraff, Old Providence Polylines, Waypoints, and Nomenclature DeGraff, Old Providence Hillshade CORALINA, Old Providence Contour Lines, Gullies, and Populated Areas CORALINA, Old Providence Biosphere Reserve