On Tuesday, March 15, both honors biology classes and the Media, Marketing and Design class took a trip downtown to the Memphis Zoo. These classes have been tasked with designing informational videos, infographics and signs for the Zoo’s upcoming Zambezi River exhibit.

Students spent the day interviewing zookeepers and getting footage of their assigned animals. The trip was chaperoned by Ms. Emmy McClain and Mr. Michael Masters, the leaders of this project, along with upper school science teachers Mr. William McClain and Ms. Kalyn Underwood. Director of Academic Technology Ms. Julene Reed also went to the zoo because she assisted the students with using the technology necessary for the interviews and taking video footage, such as cameras, microphones and green screens.

The responses of students in both the media, marketing and design and honors biology classes were very positive overall, and most vocalized that the project has been really enjoyable so far.

“It was a lot of fun,” junior and honors biology student Alton Stovall said. “We got to learn how the food was prepared and see the crocs in their cages.”

Sophomore and media marketing and design student Margo Valadie also attended the field trip.

“The MMD class was interested in the video and photography aspect of the trip,” Valadie said. Her class’s goal during the trip was to gather images and videos that would help communicate their message and hook families who will view their videos when they visit the zoo.

Mr. Masters launched this project for his students as their third trimester project. Mr. Masters and the students have been working with Ms. Michele Correia, mother of junior Isabel Correia, since she works at the zoo and is providing guidelines for each step of the project in terms of what the zoo wants.

“The goal of this project was to do something that has a practical application outside of the classroom,” Mr. Masters said. “It makes it more engaging.”

The exhibit is scheduled to open late this April, and it will feature animals including flamingos, hippos, nyalas, crocodiles and okapi.