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Since Zoo Miami’s closure due to the pandemic, Zoo Miami and Zoo Miami Foundation have been providing supporters with “Zoocademy with Ron Magill.” The online program features fun, educational videos, lessons and activities to do from home. New content is shared multiple times each week at no cost.
Currently, Zoocademy offers a variety of engaging content. Videos feature wildlife expert Ron Magill alongside many amazing animals from Zoo Miami. The animals in the videos include: African elephants, giraffes, Burmese pythons, sloths, pelicans, Galapagos tortoises, king vultures, koalas, sloth bears, Eurasian eagle owls, lions, and black rhinos with more lessons in production. Magill also covers Zoo Miami’s outstanding animal care and animal nutrition. Zoo Miami Foundation’s education department has also included themed and downloadable lessons for children and families to use at home. Special wildlife and conservation minded arts and crafts projects such as building a bee condo are also provided to keep minds and hands working while learning and helping planet earth. An amazing collaboration with the influential artist LEBO debuted this week and it provided a drawing lesson with amazing animal facts in a video segment titled “Learning and Drawing with LEBO and Ron.” Unique animal inspired yoga lessons are also made available for wellness.
“My hope is that during this challenging time when the zoo cannot accept guests, Zoocademy will help to maintain an engaging connection between people, especially children, and the amazing animals that call Zoo Miami home. The videos are relatively short with the intention of providing some quick fun facts that will hopefully inspire the viewer to want to learn more and participate in the included lessons that provide wonderful opportunities to further appreciate the wonderful world of wildlife,” said Ron Magill, Zoo Miami Director of Communications.
Zoocademy can be accessed online at:
– https://www.zoomiami.org/zoocademy
– https://www.youtube.com/user/MiamiMetroZoo
– And by signing up to receive Zoo News at the bottom of both www.zoomiami.org or on the Zoocademy page itself
“Our goal is to provide free resources that enrich household lives and facilitate education for teachers and parents that were suddenly put into a homeschool environment. Zoocademy offers all kind of activities including some that use math to calculate the cost of feeding our zoo animals, outdoor scavenger hunts, and more to build an appreciation for nature and wildlife,” said Jessica Parks, Zoo Miami Foundation Director of Learning Experiences.
Zoocademy sponsors include: Assurant, Bank of America, Carnival Foundation, Florida Blue, The Kirk Foundation, Main Street Dentistry and Orthodontics, PNC Bank and West Kendall Baptist Hospital.
Since Zoo Miami’s closure, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have kindly asked how to support our work during these challenging times. We are working harder than ever to continue to serve our community and the animals in our care and we are thankful for our supporters. We look forward to seeing guests back at the Zoo soon. We are all in this together and appreciate the support very much during these unprecedented times. If you would like to donate today, please visit donate.zoomiami.org.
Please stay in touch with us for reopening information at http://www.zoomiami.org.
