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Goodrell Middle School eighth-grader Anna Flickinger sketched her surroundings during a visit with Great Ape Academy. |
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Education director says early reports indicate ‘a smashing success’
Des Moines, Iowa – November 20, 2007 – Teachers and students from Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) will spend the next several weeks making a thorough assessment of Great Ape Academy, a one-of-a-kind education program that gave students the opportunity to look over the shoulder of world-renowned scientists doing ape language and cognition research.
Hundreds of Des Moines middle school students visited Great Ape Trust’s 230-acre campus this fall as part of The Academy, an interdisciplinary education program that helps The Trust fulfill its mission to provide sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, study their intelligence, advance their conservation and provide unique educational experiences about great apes.
Specific recommendations on how to improve the program will come after the formal assessment process, but Jan Drees, the scientific research center’s K-12 education coordinator, expects strong reviews from both teachers and students.
“The feedback so far is that it has been a smashing success,” said Drees, who earned a national reputation as an innovative educator as a longtime principal of Downtown School, created by DMPS in partnership with the Des Moines Business Education Alliance to respond to concerns similar to those addressed by Great Ape Academy.
To watch a video on Great Ape Academy, click here. |
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“Some longtime teachers said it was their No. 1 field experience with students throughout their teaching careers,” she said. “Teachers appreciate the fact that students were involved and engaged while they were here – they used binoculars, they collected data, they used the lexigrams with the apes.”
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Students stretch a rope more than eight feet to show the arm span of Azy, Great Ape Trust's resident male orangutan. |
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Motivating students to explore subjects perceived as difficult, such as science, was “a non-issue for teachers,” Drees said.
Stoking students’ interest in science was one of the objectives of Great Ape Academy, which was offered to DMPS at no cost to taxpayers. The program responds to business-led concerns about the United States’ ability to sustain its scientific and technological superiority through this decade and beyond.
“The scientific method is our only way of rationally understanding the world around us over time,” Great Ape Trust founder Ted Townsend said at a news conference last summer to announce Great Ape Academy. “Early investment in students in this professional inquiry can inspire their choice of careers in multiple STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. By learning of advanced research with our great ape partners, students of all ages will find inspiration, fascination and enlightenment – in a setting available only in Iowa.”
Classroom teachers were enthusiastic about the experience as well.
“Society is more global,” said Eric Galvin, a teacher at Goodrell Middle School. “This is a way to bring part of it right here to Iowa, giving them a look beyond the cornfields and a chance to experience primates, who are awfully close to us, and think beyond themselves.”
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As Peter Clay, a senior orangutan caretaker at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, explains the traits of The Trust's three resident orangutans, students inspect a ball the orangutans use for play and enrichment. |
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Harding Middle School teacher Mark Schnurstein said Great Ape Academy was a life-changing experience for his students. “In terms of science literacy,” he said, “it’s an unforgettable experience for the students and it will have an impact on them.”
"Some students who previously had been disinterested in science are now looking at the subject differently and are eager to study it," Drees said.
For example, Harding Middle School eighth-grader Darryn Brooks, said he “might actually want to be a scientist some day” after he and two dozen other Des Moines middle school students got a glimpse at the scientific research at Great Ape Trust during the first session of Great Ape Academy on Sept. 20.
Kaylee Putzier is an eager and engaged science student, but was surprised to learn of the myriad opportunities science offers beyond those dealing with beakers and chemical equations. “I thought science would be working with chemicals, but it’s also working with animals and seeing how they interact,” said Putzier, a Goodrell Middle School eighth-grader who also visited Great Ape Trust on opening day of The Academy. “I could see myself doing something like this one day,” she said.
Drees said the comprehensive review will include an assessment of how successfully the program met both the four educational objectives of Great Ape Academy and a broader set of 51 objectives defined by DMPS; how well the teacher and student selection process worked; how to incorporate The Trust’s award-winning Web site in curriculum development; and other ideas to strengthen the program as it moves forward. The assessment process will include surveys of students, focus groups with students and teachers, and interviews with myriad professionals, including Great Ape Trust personnel, school administrators and school board members.
Great Ape Trust Background
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
