1st Grade Virtual Field Trip to Omaha Zoo; Zoologist

Tuesday, October 3 Mr. Gilliland’s first graders had a virtual field trip to the Omaha Zoo to visit with Zoologist Peter Brunette. This was the student’s first project-based learning (PBL) questions of the year! They had to brainstorm and collaborate to develop questions to ask Mr. Brunette. Some of these questions were:

• What happens when you have bad weather (natural disaster)?
• Who decides how to build areas?
• How do you get the animals?
• Have you ever had an animal escape (how do you catch them if they do?)
• Why do we have zoos?
• Why do you keep animals separated?

Mr. Brunette answered their questions and presented them with a PBL driving question: How can we create a new habitat for a living thing at the Omaha Zoo? This year, the students will master the state standards in Math, Reading, Science and Social Studies based on or around this question. They will take an in-depth look at what they need to know to answer this question and then present their findings to Mr. Peter Brunette.