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Ready for a Closeup
Video conferencing allows zoos to be more accessible to broader audiences
by John Morell
WHEN ERICA SOPHA SHOWS STUDENTS around New York City’s Bronx Zoo, they’re able to see things that aren’t visible to any other guests. They can closely examine the fingernail of a gorilla and the underground living areas of lemurs.
It’s remarkable, considering that in most cases the students Sopha works with are hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the animals. The Bronx Zoo is one of many facilities over the past decade to introduce distance-learning programs as a complement to on-site educational services. For many years, zoos have maintained educators who work with schools to coordinate field trips, take classes to exhibits, and show students lessons that mesh with units they’re working on, such as biology, conservation, and climate change. The idea with these video-conference programs is the same—only the kids sit in a classroom and follow along watching a monitor.
“The kids are able to explore with me and the cameras to find animals,” Sopha says. “We’ll find those that are hiding, a gorilla walking around, or even ants climbing a leaf. It’s interaction at its best.”
A Cost-Effective Educational Alternative
In today’s economy, as school districts battle to maintain educational standards with less funding, traditional class outings are often cut from the budget, making these kinds of virtual field trips cost-effective. “Of course, walking around the facility and seeing animals up close may be preferable, but distance learning has its advantages,” says Becky Nellis, school programs manager for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. “It’s cheaper than a field trip, the children don’t miss a half day of school, and teachers tell us that because they’re in class there are fewer distractions. The children get more out of the lesson.”
The technology making these programs possible wasn’t readily available until the mid-1990s. “When we got started we borrowed video conferencing equipment from the state, which required these big eight-foot tables and lots of technical help,” says Nellis. “It worked, but we saw that if we were going to expand the program, the technology had to become easier to use.”
There was also the expense. Early video conferencing required the school and zoo to be hooked up with a pricey ISDN line for faster up- and downloads. Improvements in Internet technology have introduced conferencing through regular broadband connections.
Thousands of schools have invested in video conferencing equipment since the prices have come down and the potential to connect with educational centers like zoos has increased. The equipment includes a camera and microphone and hooks up to a monitor and also to a computer that transmits the audio and video through the Internet.
The Internet connection between the zoo and the classroom may experience minor delays, but users say the experience isn’t affected. “We can speak to the class in a normal tone and they don’t have to shout for us to hear them,” says Rebecca Balk, distance learning coordinator for the Buffalo Zoo in New York. “After a few minutes getting over the novelty of it, the students really get into the program and it’s like I’m physically in their class.”
The Logistics
Some zoos use a dedicated studio on the grounds for classroom connections, while others use a multipurpose room set up for presentations. In all cases, though, the programs are about interaction between the instructor, the students, and the animals. “We will do programs both on the grounds of the zoo and in the studio,” says Josh Love, an instructor for the Indianapolis Zoo. “If the weather is bad or if we can’t access an exhibit for any reason, we have tapes of the animals and a green screen where we can stand in front to teach a lesson as if we were outside.”
 Last year the Bronx Zoo introduced a series of high-tech, remote-controlled cameras in some of the exhibits Sopha can operate during a presentation. “That’s where we get the ’oooh-ahhh’ factor,” she says. “With a joystick I can zoom in on an animal in a way that you wouldn’t be able to see if they were behind a fence.”
“After a lemur gave birth at the Bronx Zoo, the mother and baby were tucked inside a burrow hidden from view. But with her zoom lens Sopha was able to give students a peek at the animals: “We can certainly wheel the equipment up to the exhibits to show the kids, but using remote cameras is less intrusive and gives students a better view of the animals in their natural habitats.”
The Curriculum
In most zoos, distance-learning programs are managed by one or two staff members as part of the overall education department. This can be a challenge when trying to squeeze in 200 to 400 sessions per nine-month school year. “It can get pretty crazy when you’re doing several sessions in a day and you’re dealing with animals that may not be cooperative on camera,” says Nellis. “But the kids enjoy it and they take away something from each lesson.”
Distance-learning programs are tailored for each grade level but are usually arranged to cover specific areas. “Sometimes a teacher will request we talk about a certain topic so that it relates to a particular lesson they’re working on, which is fine,” says Heather Grisham, outreach specialist for the Indianapolis Zoo. “We don’t have the resources to customize an entire lesson so we look at what science classes are studying and build our programs around them.”
In addition to the live lesson, zoos usually send the class packets of information to prepare for it. “When we do a program on manatees for elementary students, we’ll send the class a paper cutout of a life-size manatee they measure from nose to tail during the presentation,” says Nellis. “We’ll also ask what manatees eat, and they’ll hold up foods to show us, so there’s quite a bit of give and take.”
Questions from the class are welcome and in some cases, such as with the Bronx Zoo, students can ask Sopha to use her remote cameras at the exhibits to focus on particular animals. However, interaction is limited. “The program is just under an hour and we’re trying to cover lots of items so we may not have enough time to cover everyone’s questions,” she says.
Additional Revenue Stream
Rates per session vary from $80 to nearly $200 based on the lesson and the type of connection. Single-point connections, in which a lesson is taught to one class at a time, are usually preferred and are the most expensive. “When you’re just working with one class for 45 minutes, there’s much more back and forth between the kids and the instructor. It’s not like they’re sitting in class watching TV; they’re engaged,” says Balk. A multipoint connection, where the instructor teaches up to six remote classes at the same time, is less expensive for a school. “We’ve had teachers tell us they couldn’t do this without the lower price of a multipoint connection, so while a one-on-one experience is preferred, the multipoint at least gives them a lesson,” says Grisham.
Financial benefits for the zoo are generally nominal. Some facilities are nonprofit and design their distance-learning programs to simply break even. “We consider it part of our mission in the education department. We charge enough to pay for our equipment and time,” says Nellis.
There are some positive community benefits from these programs. They bolster the image of the zoo as an educational institution, and by reaching out to schools they’re seen as helping students who wouldn’t get a chance to see live animals because of school budget problems.
Despite the obvious public relations benefits, however, distance learning doesn’t tend to boost gate receipts. “If a school is local, they’ll tend to want a real field trip to the zoo, and those are children we see making return trips with their families,” says Sopha. “But with distance learning we serve many schools that don’t have a zoo nearby, and it’s unknown how many of those kids will actually visit us.”
In addition to schools in the United States the Bronx Zoo has connected with classes in Mexico and Great Britain, with opportunities for more international lessons. “We’ve been contacted by schools in Australia and China, but the time difference gets in the way,” says Sopha. “Either I have to be here at 2 a.m., or the children need to have class at their 2 a.m. to make it work.”
As technology continues to evolve, it’s expected distance learning programs will grow and become more sophisticated, possibly by making a virtual visit even more of an individual experience by allowing students to remotely control zoom cameras from their classroom to find animals on their own. “It’s really a new frontier in connecting people to the zoo experience,” says Nellis. “All of us in this field look forward to the future.”
John Morell is a freelance business writer based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He can be reached at john@jcmorell.com.
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