Tortoise, tree frog can be unpredictable guest stars

Having live animals as props is an effective way to get an audience’s attention.

When I was at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Lab, we used live specimens in our presentations whenever possible, especially when we talked to schoolchildren. We tried to make environmental education entertaining as well as informative for the audience.

Sometimes the entertainment and educational elements were unplanned. After all, when you bring wild animals into a grammar school classroom, you should expect the unexpected.

Getting and holding the audience’s attention is essential for a presenter, whatever the subject matter might be. We inadvertently discovered two surefire ways to capture the attention of schoolchildren during an environmental presentation. One is to eat a frog; the ot