Story by Alison Lipscomb, Environmental Protection Specialist. Photos by Alison Lipscomb, Environmental Protection Specialist and Rebecca Brooke, Associate Field Manager.
Last month, a team of BLM California employees and volunteers spent the morning with the Shafter Youth Center to talk about backyard biology. The event takes place inside the gymnasium at the youth center and is part of the camp's Nature Week. The age of the children range from 8-12 years of age, with approximately 40 children present. Backyard Biologist is an educational public outreach program that is designed to educate children about typical animals found in their own backyards, as well as the different classes of vertebrates.
Prior to the event, BLM California employees trapped common animals, such as black widows, cockroaches, crickets, and western toads, that were all released after the event. BLM volunteer Athena Quan brought her rabbit, Snickers, to the event. Snickers is cottontail mixed rabbit, so he looks very similar to wild rabbits seen in a backyard!
The children are given a RIMBA (reptiles, invertebrates, mammals, birds, amphibians) bingo card to complete, where students must go table-to-table to learn about each animal class and fill out the card.
Once all the students completed the RIMBA bingo card, BLM California employees led a quick feeding session, as the crickets were dumped in the western toad aquarium. The students had to be very still and quiet for the toads to catch some of the crickets!
BLM California has done this program with the Shafter Youth Center every year since 2004. Every year is different, all depending on the variety of species we are able to catch. We love putting on Backyard Biologist for all of the kids are really excited and we get the chance to educate children about science!
