Kids love animals! No escaping that one. A visit to the zoo is a beloved experience for all kids. And it's a great part of their education, too.

I was at a zoo recently and my kids and I got to experience an added bonus. We were passing the exhibit where the seals  are housed. A zoo employee was there feeding them, which is always a great thing to watch. There happened to be quite a few kids this time in the audience. A second employee gathered the kids and started talking to them about the seals and their habits. The kids were entranced. A very cool teaching moment!

A lot of zoos around the country incorporate such "talks" into their daily routines. The animals provide the hook with which to engage the interest of the children and then the presenter has their attention and can teach them about natural science. Kids love it. Adults do, too, as it would be impossible to get the kids to sit still for this kind of lecture under other circumstances.

Schools often arrange field trips to the zoo for this very reason. And who doesn't love a field trip to the zoo? However, not all schools are close to a good zoo. And the logistics of arranging such a visit can be tough, from permission slips to transportation costs and not to mention the time out of class lost to travel time, a field trip may be out of the question.

So it is a great opportunity for schools presented by traveling school assemblies offering live animal natural science assembly programs. Mobile Ed has a long and proud history of bringing school assemblies such as Animals and the Environment or Reptiles are Cool into schools in Michigan, Ohio and all of the other states we visit. These are not "sugar-coated" ventriloquist programs featuring stuffed animals! A presenter will engage the students attention by bringing forth a variety of live animals. Snakes, reptiles, turtles, and small mammals such as chinchillas and hedgehogs with one or two larger mammals on hand to provide "star-power". Where practical and safe the children are allowed to touch the animals, which is usually not possible at a zoo. Throughout the presentation the students receive a valuable lesson in natural science. And they love it!

The video here shows one of the animals carried by one of our natural science assembly presenters. Her name is Missy (the animal, not the presenter) and she is a Patagonian Cavy, a member of the rodent family, but almost more like a small kangaroo in personality. She is a gentle sweetheart and a great hit with kids in schools all over the midwest.

Mobile Ed is now scheduling for the 2011-2012 school year. If you have not yet arranged your school assemblies for next year why not look into having Missy visit your school? Your kids will love it!

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN