I and Kaitlin, another aquatic ecology graduate student, had a great night at the Columbus Zoo helping with a research study. It was focused on investigating the effects of live species on knowledge gain of animal facts! We were only 4 feet away from a live jaguar and got to pet a soft African penguin! This is Trout, who had recently molted and I was surprised how soft and fluffy he was!

We are hypothesizing that live animals will help listeners connect more with the information being presented, and that they will learn more than listeners who do not have a live animal present. I’m excited to find out the results!