This is Vinny Ferraiolo, owner of OFF THE ARK.
I read the remainder of the thread again. It really seems that my world along with me sending kids to RARE EARTH 10 years ago is the problem. Sorry about the extra credit to Rare Earth but I was impressed with them and wanted my students inetrested in that sort of thing to see it. The gilas were extremely cool and have stuck with me since, thanx Greg. I said I was sorry to Andy about that. I honestly didn't know it caused that much of a problem.
About my biosphere project, I asked for help and advice. We never actually made the world. We got some good dynamics but stopped. Instead, we developed a wonderful project through a county grant and a collection of live animals (
http://www.sciline.net/project/about.html) that may be used by anyone in the county for free. If they do not want to handle them, myself or Chris (works at the shop) will do it for free. It has really been fun doing all the shows for all sorts of kids. We have done dozens of free shows for more than a thousand kids. most of these kids are from the city and have never seen tarantulas/scorpions, large snakes and the like.
Another side project off of the original idea and the advice I got that we did and are doing RIGHT NOW in class is one to help kids understand populations, ecology, THE WATER CYCLE as well as carbon and nitrogen in MY NEW WORLD (
http://www.sciline.net/populations/aquarium.html). This is the information that I got from Fauna. This is the Fauna that I as well as others really miss. Why does my original thread irritate so many of you. I never did what I thought, I asked what do you all think. I got some great stuff. isn't that how we problem solve? That's what I teach my students. Brainstorm with those that more than you and see what you get.
Please go to these links and really see what we are doing and do not base judgements on what you think or heard. And again, any of you all can come by and see me and my store anytime but be open minded.
Linear Mode
