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COMMUNITY:
Project Descriptions

Tropic World: A Primate's View

August 15, 1992 - July 31, 1997 | Exhibitions
Zoos have the opportunity to reach a large audience and to improve public understanding of biological principles. Zoos can go beyond creating an appreciation for nature by actively encouraging their visitors to apply these principles and take action on behalf of the environment. Tropic World: A Primate's View will improve the interpretation of an existing exhibit at Brookfield Zoo by encouraging visitors to experience a tropical rainforest from a non-human primate's perspective. Visitors will be challenged, by interactive forms of interpretation, to explore the similarities and differences between themselves and other primates. This experience will provide a framework for visitors to consider their own relationship with their environment. The project objectives are: 1. To improve public understanding that , like all organisms, primates use and depend on their environment. However, humans ar the only primate species that can choose how they impact their environment over extended time and space. 2. to motivate people to act on behalf of the natural world through conservation. 3. To contribute to the body of knowledge of how informal education affects people's knowledge of natural science topics, as well as the behavior of people in relation to conservation issues.

Funders

NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 9253371
Funding Amount: 931161

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Carol Saunders
    Principal Investigator
    Brookfield Zoo
  • Anne Baker
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Brookfield Zoo
  • Discipline: Ecology, forestry, and agriculture | Life science
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals
    Environment Type: Exhibitions | Aquarium and Zoo Exhibits

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