Animal Reproduction Workshop

To get the most out of the Animal Reproduction Workshop at the Zoo, we suggest studying the following aspects at school before the visit:  

To understand the students’ interests and increase motivation about the animals: 

• Make a list of animals that are marsupials, oviparous and viviparous and debate the advantages and disadvantages of each type of reproduction.   
• Put a box in the classroom where students can place the questions they may have at any time on reproduction and that will be studied later.
• Explain why it is so important that animals reproduce at the Zoo.
• Bring in videos, CDs or other materials on electronic supports about this subject.  

To observe animals: 

• Build or obtain an incubator for the classroom and put fertilised chicken and quail eggs in it to watch their evolution: examine the components of eggs in detail.
• Have animals that breed easily in the classroom, for example hamsters, turtledoves or guinea pigs, and follow their reproductive process.
• Observe the metamorphosis of an amphibian.
• Ask students who have a pet and vertebrate to prepare, individually or in groups, an explanation about its reproduction to present to their classmates with the help of photographs or the animal itself.
• Visit a breeding farm.
• Make nest-boxes and place them in the schoolyard so that the birds living in it can reproduce (the Department of Social Sciences provides them if you ask).

As specific objectives: 

• Introduce the concept of sexual reproduction and identify the different types. 
• Function of the reproductive organs and sexual cells. 
• Identification of the types of fertilisation. 
• Reproduction in the different classes of vertebrates.
• Study of behaviour linked to reproduction.