GABE BARNARD
Over testing week, Brad Shores’s AP Biology classes hopped on a bus to go on a field trip to the Denver Zoo and escape school for one period.
The purpose for going on the trip was to study the behavior of animals in the Zoo and also to take some of the stress out of the student’s minds prior to their AP exam.
“We spent 10 minutes looking at one animal and every 30 seconds we would write down what it was doing and what category of animal behavior theirs went under,” Simon Pozder, a Sophomore in the AP Biology class, said. “I chose to look at a penguin for 10 minutes.”
Categories of animal behavior that the students identified included mo
vement based on their environment, social behavior, feeding and resting. Penguins are not very active animals, so for Pozder this part of the process was a little tedious. After completing the task of observing the animals in the zoo, the students were allowed to walk around and enjoy the zoo for the remaining time they had.
Although all of the students had the chance to wander around the zoo, the trip was a little more serious for some class members. The majority of the students in the class are upperclassmen and chose to be in the class because they are interested in the subject as a possibility for a career in the biology field.
“[The best part] was probably being around all the people who are committed
and actually care about biology,” Pozder said. “I had high expectations because Mr. Shores is really cool so I expected a lot from it and [enjoyed] it because I got to be with all of my biology classmates.”
While upperclassmen might have been more focused than the sophomores on the task of identifying animal behavior, the experience at the zoo provided a break from normal school activities and helped students to prepare for their upcoming AP exam.
