Australia's Science Forum

Hello!

We wan to get some more animals to spice up our labs a bit, we currently have a tank with a yabbie, and a couple of tanks with leaf insects. And we are getting some butterflies to breed as well. We have been thinking about getting a bird and also maybe some reptiles... I am curious what pets you have at your schools and if you have any tips on interesting creatures. I should mention that we are an all girl school so our animals are really well looked after and aren't at risk of 'accidently' getting poisoned

Sassi

I think you will find due to the animal welfare act having animals for observation reasons (not to spice up the lab) is hard work - you need to fill out paperwork daily on health and welfare (at least here in WA you do) that is why a lot of primary schools keep to the yabbies, crazey crabs and insects (stick insects so forth) as they are not covered by the act.


Reptiles you need some one to have the licence for their keep along with amphibians.
Birds and any mammals agian have heaps of paper work with them and you need to be able to have a good reason to have them not jsut for a bit of sprucing.

Dont want to put a dampner on the whole keeping animals thing i love it myself but with allthe paper work and restictions it is not something to go into lightly.
We keep fish,yabbies & Marron, axolotl and worms. Paper work is filled out for fish and axolotl. As someone has to look after teh animals in school holiday times we ahve restricted to animals with easy care as i am not here in holidays nor do i live close enough to pop in.

We are currently axolotl farming - a big hit with the kids. They are buying up all the babies. Not a particularly girly sort of animal but interesting, nonetheless.
Cheers,
Search

Yeah, with all the paper work required, it starts to become too hard to keep animals.
What about some plants? Shell or fossil collection?

I also have a great canivorous plant display - easy to care for and the kids love it wheni catch flies to put in the tererium for the plants to "catch".
grow soem crystals of differnt sizes, shapes and put them in an aqarium (to keep hands and dust off) - kids love to look at crytals even the girls .

Hi
We have silk worms the kids love them as they can watch them go from egg to worm to cocoon to moth in a term
Noona

I believe the laws for animal welfare are the same as WA. In NSW we have to be careful with what we keep. If you are a AG school, not too many of those today. It may be quite different. But a general DET school, check it out first.

Thank you all so much for your input, I am very pleased to hear that there is a lot of paper work involved, because my HT hates paper work and will then not go through with it. Although I LOVE animals, I was not very keen on getting any for the school as, surprise surprise, I would be the one ending up having to care for them, and that on top of the mount everest sized work load I already have is just too much for one person to handle. Thanks for all you wonderful ideas, I will be getting some carnivourus plants and maybe some of those silk worms too!

Sassi

I've thought about getting silkworms for our labs as well... Does anyone in Tamworth have any eggs to give away? We used to have them as kids. When do they usually hatch out? I don't remember.

Ring around the primary schools, Rosalie - bound to be a teacher somewhere with some on the go. That's where I got some for my own kids years ago.