Two Birmingham Zoo employees to attend San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research

The Birmingham Zoo is pleased to announce and congratulate two ZooSchool teachers who were selected to attend the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research in July. With only 75 available openings to teachers from around the globe, two were awarded to the Birmingham Zoo’s Education Department for Zoo Educators, Lissa Blankinship and Joy Fuqua. Blankinship and Fuqua were the only zoo educators included and are the only representatives from the southeastern United States.

“This is quite an honor for our teachers and for the Birmingham Zoo,” said Roger Torbert, vice president education at the zoo. 

Kathy Fournier, school programs manager at the zoo, said the trip will help further train the pair.

“The purpose of our trip is to acquire new skills in framing content standards in the context of wildlife conservation and explore ways to challenge students to apply what they may learn in the classroom to current biodiversity challenges and current research. We will incorporate this information into ZooSchool, Zoo After School, and the Home School curriculum,” said Kathy Fournier, school programs manager.

“The experience will allow us, as educators, to work with world redound research scientists to make sure our curriculum incorporates real-life, relevant learning experiences for all of our school programs offered at the Birmingham Zoo,” said Blankinship.

For more information on the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, visit http://institute.sandiegozoo.org/.

For more information about the Birmingham Zoo, visit the Zoo on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, or at birminghamzoo.com.

-Submitted by The Birmingham Zoo.