Lehigh Valley Zoo Internship with Cory Scott! #psuaged15

Cory Scott, a 2015 Student Teacher, had the opportunity for an incredible internship this past summer. Cory (@CJScottAgEd) was an intern at the Lehigh Valley Zoo in Schnecksville, PA. He is a guest blogger this week to share his experience with us! 

Cory Scott, 2015 Student Teacher

This summer I was a conservation education intern at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. As an intern in the education department I had a wide array of responsibilities from teaching and giving tours to providing animal care. Most days at the zoo for me start at 7 working with one of the education staff members on one of our two animal routines. As part of each routine we were
responsible for cleaning up after, feeding and checking each of our animals in the education department. Some of the over 50 animals in the department included many reptiles such as snakes and lizards, several birds of prey, a sloth and two prehensile tail porcupines just to name a few.

After all the animals were taken care of it was then time to get to the education part of the day. The zoo provides many different educational programs including animal presentations, guided tours, nature walks, creek studies and other programs aimed at teaching people about conservation. As an intern I was required to learn about most of the animals in the zoo and run the different programs that we offered.

This internship provided me with countless new skills and knowledge, not only animals but also teaching. While at the zoo I worked with students and adults of many different ages and backgrounds including preschoolers, senior citizens, and people from rural communities as well as inner city Allentown. Meeting and interacting with all these different people was an eye opening experience for me.

I had never spent any time teaching preschoolers but i quickly learned that it takes more patients then I could have ever imagined. A critical skill I learned through working with small children was taking information and breaking it down into its simplest components. This was something I struggled with in the beginning but overtime developed. While working with students from inner city Allentown I learned a great deal about their lack of access to nature and open spaces. This again required me to learn to take the information I had and adapt it to meet their needs and relate it to their prior experiences. The skills I gained this summer I will take with me as I begin my career as an educator.


To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog! 

Cory Scott
2015 Student Teacher
@CJScottAgEd