I went on a field trip with students from the Sint Maarten Montessori school on Friday and it was a blast! We saw kleptoparasitic spiders, ants moving their nests, lizards that live only on St. Martin and many other interesting things while walking through Bellevue. Word on the street is that the kids had a really great time and learned many new things.
The plan is to do many more events like this with as many students on the island as possible. Getting the new book into the schools will be great, but sharing this stuff in person, either via a presentation/slide show or a field trip is even better. As far as I can tell, an interest in wildlife is either universal in kids or very easy to spark. The Montessori students on Friday were very engaged and had tons of great questions.
Most of these events will happen in the fall, once the book is available and school has resumed again. If you’re an educator, get in touch so we can schedule something. I’m still fine-tuning the education program, but you can find out more about it on this web site, including descriptions of some of the presentations.
Photo by Kate Barrow
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- Hiking with Montessori student, photo by Kate Barrow.
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- Watching a colony of ants move, photo by Kate Barrow.
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- Ant on the move.
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- Spiderling exoskeletons in old egg sac. From the Souliga Wall Crab Spider, found only on St. Martin.
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- Planthopper on a branch.
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- Bearded anole, a lizard found only on St. Martin.
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- Spiderling exoskeletons from egg sac made in an old Jack Spaniard paper wasp nest.
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- Spider inside a silk tube made in tamarind bark.