We were fortunate to be able to see three different aspects of the Zoo’s Pathology Department this week. We started out in Necropsy, where the girls got to see real samples of diseased bone and horn, and formalin-fixed tissues. It is here that the initial postmortem exams take place—the “path techs” and pathologists work together to collect sample tissues for further study. Sometimes, a diagnosis can be made by simple observation—a broken bone or severe injury is usually easy to identify—but more often it takes microscopic examination. The highlight of this area, aside from all of the equipment and the massive walk-in refrigerator, was a large sable antelope heart, showed to us by one of the pathology technicians.

Our next stop was Histology, where tissue samples are prepared for microscopic examination. Histologist Yvonne Cates explained that a tissue is any group of cells that works together for a purpose, and the girls came up with great examples of different types of tissues found in their own bodies. While Path Techs April Gorow, Julie Concha, and Mark Hammond put small tissue samples into cassettes to be processed, Yvonne showed us how to embed the tissue in paraffin once it’s ready. The girls got to practice with heart-shaped jellybeans and had their very own cassettes to take home at the end of the afternoon!

Once the tissue is embedded, it can be cut into very thin slices and put on slides. After some final processing, each case goes to pathologists like Dr. Rebecca Papendick, who showed us how beautiful cells and tissue samples can be when viewed under the ‘scope. Pathologists can often see evidence of disease, injury, and parasites at this level, and we were able to see the differences between healthy and diseased tissue under Dr. Papendick’s tutelage.

While sitting in that dark room looking at slides projected onto a screen before us, one of the new girls turned to me and with eagerness in her voice asked, “Oooh! Can we do this again next semester?!” I think it’s a good sign!

Special thanks to the entire Pathology Department for your time and efforts. Having spent nearly a year on loan to this department, I carry a special fondness for all of you and know how valuable your time is. Kudos!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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In essence, Jeannine uses some very high-tech receivers and 24 satellites to plot different points around the Zoo. The satellites send information to the receiver so that Jeannine can plot where exactly on the face of the Earth the receiver is. Each time Jeannine moves the receiver, she collects a new set of points. These points are joined together to measure and map everything from exhibit boundaries to plant locations to the sewage system. Each point is identified and transferred to a computer where special software pieces it all together and maps it. Whew! Simple, right? Eventually, the entire San Diego Zoo and everything in it will be mapped. We’ll be able to find water valves and electrical trunk lines and the coffee cart and will even be able to track down where the poop trucks park!

Our group was based at the elephant exhibit, where Jeannine set up her equipment and started collecting points around the exhibit’s perimeter. Tembo, the Zoo’s African elephant, was very interested in what we were up to and stuck very close during our work! Once finished, we examined maps that had been made from the points Jeannine had collected previously and were able to gather quite a lot of data—the exhibit’s shape (polygon), square footage (nearly 15,000 square feet or 1,390 square meters!), and occupants (elephants) were all listed.

Some of our participants have had previous experience using hand-held GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) units, which rely on the same satellites for information, to participate in a worldwide game called geocaching. We used the units, which were generously donated by Garmin International, to find some caches during our fall campout at San Onofre, and learned that caches are hidden on every continent in the world! There are even a handful of them stashed in and around the Zoo!

Thanks, Jeannine, for a fascinating afternoon filled with high-tech science!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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The Zoo houses six Masai giraffes, and the girls enjoyed having the opportunity to feed and get to know them. One of our big challenges was learning how to tell the individuals apart—Silver is the adult male, or bull, and is very dark. Abby is the tallest and blondest female. Bahati is an adult female with long, black hairs growing from the tip of her tail. Nakuru, also known as Nicki, is often mistaken for a youngster, but is in fact a very petite adult. Amani is a very dark female toddler, and at 1 1/2 years, is nearly as tall as Nicki. The youngest in the group is a very blond male named Hodari, who was born November 9—his mom Bahati’s birthday!

Our visit occurred late in the afternoon, so the herd was ready for snacks when we arrived. We learned that the Zoo’s giraffes are fed an Australian species of acacia (Acacia cyclopsis) rather than the types they would naturally encounter in Africa, because the keepers prefer to feed out food that doesn’t have four- to five-inch thorns growing out of it! The giraffes don’t seem to mind the foreign browse at all, and also receive alfalfa and leaf eater biscuits throughout the day.

Thanks to the giraffe keeper team for allowing us to visit so late in the day! We had a lovely time and snapped some great photos!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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Nothing manmade is used, so there is nothing left but what he started with when Mother Nature finishes. We let his sculpture inspire us to wander out onto the beach, each girl on her own, to build something unique and ephemeral, using only found, natural items. The sculptures were stunning, and we documented each with our digital camera before the tide washed them all away.

We played for a little while, then spent the hike back to the campsite geocaching. Geocaching requires the use of a hand-held device called a global position system (GPS) unit. Sound high-tech? It is! The GPS units work something like compasses, utilizing satellites in orbit around the Earth to give each user her exact location. We went on a treasure hunt, looking for caches that had previously been hidden by other players of our game. Having only coordinates to go by, and the GPS units to guide us, we finally found our first cache! The girls were excited to learn about the process—I suspect we’ll be doing quite a bit more geocaching next semester!!

We made it back, worked on our journals for a while, and had a great dinner followed by s’mores! The evening’s highlight was the radio shows that each tent group put on, entertaining us with what they had learned or experienced through the GIS program this semester. They were all fabulous—the GIS participants are all natural comediennes, I think!

Late to bed and early to rise, but what are you going to do? Breakfast was early, and our park ranger never showed up for our morning activity, so we lounged around a bit, laughed and played, and wrapped up the morning playing some group games with a huge orange-and-white parachute! A highlight for me was getting to spend some quality time catching up with some of the alumnae who joined us, and getting to know the new girls even better!

The program wraps up for the semester the first week in December, but we’ll start up again after the holidays. Keep your eyes peeled—we’ll be back!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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First we met a beautiful Brazilian black tarantula named Vivica. Spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks all belong to the arachnid family, which means that they have eight legs, two body parts (abdomen and cephalo-thorax) and simple eyes. Paige explained that New World tarantulas like Vivica have urticating hairs that they can eject to protect themselves against predators. The barbed hairs stick into the predators and cause irritation. We watched Vivica hunt down her lunch, too—a cricket that Paige placed in her enclosure.

The next bug we met was a New Guinea stick insect. As an insect, rather than an arachnid, she had six legs, three body parts (abdomen, thorax, and head), compound eyes, and antennae positioned on the top of her head. She was large and brown, and looked like a twig with dried leaves attached. We decided she had developed some really fabulous camouflage to help protect her in her native habitat. Luckily, the squeamishness had disappeared, because the girls were able to touch this big girl, while Paige explained that they are parthenogenic, which means they can reproduce without having to mate! Essentially, they will lay eggs that develop into clones of themselves, unless they meet a male and mate. The eggs that are laid then will have a mixture of genetic material from both the male and the female.

The last bugs we met were Madagascar hissing cockroaches! Many of the girls recognized these insects from Dr. Zoolittle shows, and were ready to reach out and touch them. We talked about the importance of scavengers and decomposers in the world wide food web, and the girls decided cockroaches weren’t too bad, after all (as long as they stay away from our kitchens!).

Bugs of all kinds have exoskeletons, which means that their skeletons are on the outside of their bodies (unlike vertebrates, which have endoskeletons), and are eaten on every continent except North America! We talked about how the fear of bugs is usually a cultural thing, that we absorb it from the people around us. And then Paige brought out some beetle larvae for us to have a look at—and eat!! “Eeeeeeww,” they all said, but most of them gave it a go. I think the cheddar cheese flavoring helped them go down, and the general consensus seemed to be that they tasted like popcorn!

Thanks, Paige, for opening our eyes, not only to the buggy world around us, but to our cultural misconceptions about these critters! They’re beautiful and fascinating!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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Our introduction to the afternoon was a Wegeforth Bowl Sea Lion Show, where the girls could watch the trainers putting different types of animals through their paces. They noticed how closely each animal focused on its trainer and how, after performing a behavior, each animal was given a treat. The trainers explained to us later that they reward the behaviors they want, and ignore the behaviors they do not want—this is called “positive reinforcement.” This approach encourages positive and rewarding relationships between the trainers and the animals that they work with, and builds trust.

After the show, the trainers brought out Jake and walked him through a training session. We watched as they worked on a new behavior—foot tapping—using a target so Jake would know where to direct his efforts. Each time he lifted his flipper toward the target, he was rewarded with a handful of fish. It was a great opportunity for the girls to see how each behavior is broken down into small steps to make it easier for the animals to learn.

When Jake finished, Nelson joined us. Nelson is a calm, older fellow, and is a great one for posing. The girls each got a chance to pose for a picture with him, but not until it was explained to them that they must follow directions. Nelson knew and trusted his trainers, but we were unknowns—if we did something he wasn’t expecting, it would scare him, and we didn’t want to do that. The girls did fabulously, and each came away with a picture of themselves, a sea lion magnet, and—most importantly!—a hand wipe!!

The trainers told us they wanted our visit to be the best of the semester. I think the girls would agree that getting smooched by a sea lion was definitely a highlight!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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After first discussing many different kinds of communication (such as tactile, olfactory, and auditory), Yvette introduced us to several of the monkeys that reside in Monkey Trails, and we were able to compare the ways monkeys communicate with the ways teenage girls and boys communicate!

The Angolan colobus monkeys and black mangabeys put on a terrific show for us. The colobus monkeys showed us who controlled the hierarchy in the enclosure and how simple physical presence can often be enough to dictate who is in charge and who gets to sit in the best spot. Most primates prefer to stare, show off their teeth, or try to appear larger in order to get what they want. Fights can result in life-threatening injuries, and often occur only as a last resort.

One of the golden-bellied mangabeys, Raffi, holds a special place in his heart for Yvette, and will flirt mercilessly with her when she walks by. We watched him tip his head, turn his back, and lip-smack, all methods of monkey flirting that the girls thought was quite cute, as well.

The mandrills and lesser spot-nosed guenons share an enclosure. P.J., the male mandrill (pictured here with Yvette), is a fine example of colorful markings designed to attract potential mates. He is also nearly twice the size of Dora and Angie, the female mandrills that live with him, and they think he is absolutely wonderful! The girls thought P.J.’s coloring was a little over the top, but a discussion of middle school boys’ use of hair gel and saggy pants followed. The girls decided P.J. wasn’t too far off the mark, after all!

Yvette did a wonderful job introducing the girls to the concept of visual communication, and helped them to see that they engage in it every day themselves. From hairdos to clothing choices to facial expressions, there is more to communicating than just using a cell phone, and the girls realized they are more adept at it than they thought!

Special thanks to Yvette for her time and efforts! She has presented for GIS on several occasions and always does a superb job! Kudos!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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The afternoon starts out with a discussion of the previous weeks’ activities. We had been to see the camels and met a reptile keeper, so we pulled out our notes and new journal pages for each visit. As a group, we discuss the questions posed on the journal pages, then the girls are responsible for writing out their answers in their own words. They also have an opportunity to piece together an opinion—I ask them to tell me if they think they would enjoy doing the job we visited, and why or why not.

When they have finished writing up their opinions about what they have learned, the colored paper and markers come out, and we spend the rest of the afternoon being creative! The girls get copies of photos that I have taken during our visits, use old ZOONOOZ magazine photos, stickers, and lots of creativity, and make scrapbook pages of their experiences. We also design thank-you cards that are sent to our presenters, complete with photos and lots of flowery sentiment.

Classroom sessions are a great time for us to chat, discuss what we have seen, and express our creative sides. They are also a time for me to get to know the girls in a one-to-one, informal setting, which is the very best part of the program for me!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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Each visit started with a large snake feeding! Kim directed us down to one of the large corner exhibits that house Boelin’s pythons. By the time we stationed ourselves at the windows, Kim opened up the interior door to have a peek at the snakes. The animals immediately perked up and looked at her, knowing what was coming next. Using a special, long-handled tool, Kim reached into the exhibit and offered each snake a rat. The snakes struck, grabbing hold of the already dead rat and quickly constricting it! We watched, awestruck, as the snakes constricted until they were sure their food was ready to be eaten and then slowly, methodically, swallowed the rats. The girls decided the ickiest part was when the pythons had gotten the rats all the way down but the tails were still poking out!

From there, we got to enter the secret domain of a reptile keeper—the reptile house! Built in 1936, it is a big, hollow square with an open central patio (which houses turtles!). The temperature and humidity inside is high in order to keep all of the reptiles happy and eating. We caught a glimpse into the antivenin refrigerator, where all of the anti-venoms are stored, just in case. We saw the long-handled snake hooks and face guards that are used when venomous animals need to be moved. And Kim pulled out a Fijian banded iguana and a hog-nosed turtle for us to see up close.

The San Diego Zoo has one of the largest reptile collections in the world and has successfully bred endangered animals such as the Galapagos tortoise, the Madagascar flat-tailed tortoise, the Fiji Island iguana, and even the golden frog, which isn’t a reptile at all, but an amphibian that is extinct in the wild. We felt very privileged to have spent an afternoon learning about the Zoo’s collection and all that it takes to be a reptile keeper. Thanks, Kim!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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Alpacas, llamas, vicunas, and guanacos, or “no-humped” camels, are South American. The Zoo has four (well, now five) resident guanacos that are currently living behind the main camel enclosure and are visible when standing next to the royal antelope enclosure. The newest arrival, whose gender is yet unknown, is with its mother in a small area off to the back, to give them some quiet time to get to know one another.

The baby guanaco arrived between the first and second GIS visits, so the first group of girls wasn’t able to see it. Rest assured, they will force me to promise them a visit later in the semester! The second group of girls did get to peek in, but only from a distance. The motto for our program should be “Expect the Unexpected!” because we always seem to stumble into a surprise. The Zoo’s newest addition was a great way for us to kick off the school year. Welcome, little one!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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