On 23 April, Mrs. Farina’s AP Biology class took a field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. While there they conducted an animal behavior lab on an animal of their choice. Prior to visiting the zoo, students were to pick an animal to observe and do research on the typical behaviors of that animal. 

     Once at the zoo, students did an initial observation of the animal they had chosen. During this time, they wrote down behavioral observations to be tallied during the data collection period of the lab. This was a 40 minute time period in which students observed their animal and recorded the amount of time each behavior occurred. 

     Shelby Dougherty observed a golden lion tamarin for her animal behavior lab. She enjoyed observing the behavior of the animal, as they were very active and cute. Shelby states, “I liked watching them jump from branch to branch. They were also very cute and small.” She also explained that she got many stares, adding, “I felt like I was an exhibit, because so many people stared at me while I was recording my observations.”

     After the observation period, the students were allowed to walk around the zoo, get lunch, and spend time in the gift shop. This was the favorite part of all the students. They got to see many animals and the weather was beautiful for walking around. Some students even got to feed the giraffes. Overall, the AP Biology students thoroughly enjoyed the field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.