I Know Way Too Much about Cockroaches now!

This is the shedded exoskeleton of a tarantula.
Did you know cockroaches can actually live if their heads get cut off? Their brain is lengthwise throughout their body, but cockroaches will die within a few days as they have no way to eat. Today 5th graders videoconferenced with Lee Richardson Zoo in Kansas in a program called Lack of Back about invertebrates. They reviewed some of the terms they had been learning about in science and saw some examples of aquatic and land invertebrates. Students were given the opportunity to learn from Misty Ayers, a zoologist. She showed students a live brown Oklahoman tarantula and a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, as well as the exoskeletons of others. This was a great extension of students' classroom learning.

Did you know that if you learned about 18 invertebrates each day it would take you 300 years to learn about all that scientists currently know about? That's alot of boneless animals!

A big thank you to Misty Ayers at Lee Richardson Zoo for her free interactive videoconferences; she has been wonderful to Lee Hall and we always enjoy her presentations.