School Bells Ring at the Zoo

©WCS/L.Groskin

The start of another school year doesn’t signal the end of monkeying around for a pioneering group of New York City sixth graders. As students of the new Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, these kids will have regular lessons at the Bronx Zoo. The school has partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society, parent organization to the Bronx Zoo. Eventually the school will serve students in grades 6 to 12.

Teachers at the school will incorporate the zoo’s resources into many facets of the curriculum. A math lesson may require observing the behaviors of the Zoo’s bison herd or snow leopard family to calculate how many calories they use and the amount of food needed to replenish the energy. In language arts class, the reading list will include works by great naturalists like WCS biologist George Schaller, and poetry exercises will encourage kids to see animals and plants as creative inspiration. Art classes will include sketching expeditions to JungleWorld, the Zoo’s enormous indoor rainforest. And students at the school will gain new role models with science careers—not just doctors and astronauts, but the conservation biologists and zookeepers who will be their neighbors.

Operated under the auspices of the New York City Board of Education, the school is receiving seed money and start-up management by Urban Assembly, which has founded 17 schools based on public-private partnerships. The city will manage the school and employ its teachers, and the Bronx Zoo will provide resources and training. The school will provide seven years of continuous education and mentoring within the Bronx community.

The school is currently located within middle school building IS 135 in the Department of Education’s Region Two. Students come from some of the most underserved parts of the Bronx—itself one of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. Nearly one-third of the borough’s residents live below the poverty line and more than half describe themselves as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Educators expect this new program will stimulate interest among the students to pursue careers in science, conservation, or zoo/aquarium professions—all areas where minorities are under-represented.

The Bronx Zoo’s award-winning Education Department was established in 1929—the world’s first zoo education program. Today it is a source of science curricula and professional development for teachers in all 50 U.S. states and 20 countries. As a partner in the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, it will provide curriculum development, extensive programming for students, activities for parents, and teacher training. A family science day at the Zoo for students and their parents will help kick-start the school year on September 29.

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