Year 7 Melbourne Zoo 

THE WILD; and what I learnt from it.

Zoos have been a staple of entertainment for years, with approximately 700 million people visiting annually, though unbeknownst to many, it can also be a place for learning. With visitors from any age being able to learn and appreciate the different animals, Mullauna Colleges Melbourne Zoo Excursion is a prime example of what can be learnt from a Zoo.

With lots of animals and interesting exhibits, Zoos are one of the best and easiest ways to learn scientific reasoning; being so powerful that all the year sevens could learn even whilst being in the rain. With Melbourne Zoo providing tours and worksheets to complete, they allowed a safe way to interact and observe the animals, without cramming us with too much information. Furthermore, the zookeepers asked various questions to challenge our thinking, and taught us while doing so.

I had tried various ways in the past to learn this topic, and this excursion was really the option that made it ‘click.’ They first provided us a few hours to roam around the zoo in a small group with a worksheet to complete all throughout the day, which allowed the students to see the animals while getting taught necessary information. Later on in the day, the zookeepers brought multiple groups into a room, with lots of different skeletons of animals, telling us to identify what animals they once were. We did this by classifying the animals with features such as structural adaptation and behavioural adaptation. When we finished, the teachers then told us if our guess was correct or not, which provided Mullauna’s year 7 students a chance to learn from their own mistakes.

Overall, the Mullauna Colleges Zoo Excursion was an amazing learning experience to the students and let us learn how science relates to animals at the zoo.

Mahdi Manouchehri

Year 7 Student