school presentation with blaze

[supersnakeman101]

what do you think i should include about the blue tongues in a school science presentation
thanks
Thomas

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Hello,
This is (insert here).
He is a blue tongue skink.
Blue tonugue skinks live in Australia and Indonesia. This specific type comes from indonesia. He will grow to become about 2ft long.
The are omnivores meaning that they eat both animal and plant matter. I feed him (insert here).
If you look here you will see that he has a blue tongue (poke skink's head to make him stick out tonuge)
and some more stuff.

[Linnea]

its certain to hear:

-omg its a snake

so prepare to tell them the differences between a snake and a lizard, in general n__n

tell them what your skink loves to do on a regular day. treats (people seem to love hearing abour them eating fruits O.o ), basking, and so. it helps for people who are not fond of reptiles to know they have likes and dislikes too. an emotional thing i guess.

you can also bring photos of your skink along, since theyre not always at their best when being forced to behave ;D photos are good for teaching and telling too (photoshop them for brighter colour - highten contrasts a little, focus should be on eyes, legs, tongue or the food for simple ideas.)

tell them about their defence mechanism - how they show off their awesome blue tongue

[critterguy]

All the above is pretty good

I'd also add(based on experience doing this and what people find interesting).

BTS give live birth. A sizeable number of squamate reptiles actually don't lay eggs.(including rattlesnakes, Boas, etc. etc.) The fact that they give live birth and the babies even come out with a little "umbilical cord" is something people find endearing. Since I don't have a baby bluetongue at the moment I use my cell phone as a model of how big they are when born.

Differences between a snake and a lizard-since to many people skinks look very snakelike.

Osteoderms. Bony plates that back the scales which means that the animal is incased in a thin suit of armor. Another well known reptile with distinct osteoderms would be a crocodile

teeth being blunt and adapted for crushing...feed on slow moving hard shelled prey.

defensive use of the tongue.

Solitary lifestyle and fighting behavior.

The diversity of skinks (largest family of lizards in the world, size range, habitat diversity, etc.)

[Spindown]

Bring a picture of a bluey sticking out its tongue, as mine generally do NOT do it on command, and poking it is mean!
You could also bring pics comparing different localities

[skeetersmom]

I bring my skink around to different schools in my area. It does depend on your target audience. Most people like seeing them eat (extept snails) so I made a video. I agree about the tongue - pictures are great - blow them up as much as you can so people in the back can see also. Afterward - they can be hung up like posters

Something I do is make information cards (like baseball cards) of the different animals I bring around - each student gets one per visit. Gives them something to take with them - and hopefully encourages further research of the animal on their part

[skeetersmom]

One thing I forgot - I usually get to the school an hour before the presentation - this lets the animals settle down before the presentation

[supersnakeman101]

i did the presentation in front of a few classes
and it went pretty good blaze behaved and let everybody pet him and did not huff a billion times
everyone had pretty good Qs and i was able to confidently answer them

[skeetersmom]

Glad to hear that! It is always awsome with a presentation animal behaves themselves. Just wondering - what was the initial reaction of your audience - and what did they think when they left?

[supersnakeman101]

at the beginning they where like " OMG i snake" then at the end they were i like blueys
Mission accomplished haha

[skeetersmom]

March onward Bluey Educator...march on

[supersnakeman101]

I Will the only easy day was yesterday

[Spindown]

lol when I take Creep out she is fine for a while, but then she starts peeing on people