Did you know that the PALCS High School Science Department has class pets? That’s right! Real, live class pets, just like you might find in a brick-and-mortar school.
Our wonderful, innovative educators here at PALCS brainstorm ways on how to adapt brick-and-mortar experiences and deliver them on the cyber environment. To introduce and maintain class pets with our cyber school students, our science department came up with the idea of temporarily livestreaming class pets and incorporating them into lessons. The pets live at our main office building in West Chester, and students can get updates from their teachers on the pets and learn about their habits, characteristics and ecosystems.
Ms. King, our science department chair, has three green anoles: Memphis and friends (one male, two females). Anoles are lizards indigenous to the southern United States. They are hoping that the anoles with reproduce and they will have babies soon.
High school science teacher Ms. Hollenbach has 2 female albino leopard geckos, named Bill Nye the Gecko Guy and Neil DeGecko Tyson. They are called Billie and Nel for short.
They also have a colony of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. These insects cannot fly, and are not the type of cockroach you might find in a home. They are quite friendly and do hiss!
Lastly, they have an aquaponic garden, currently growing is butter lettuce, with 5 goldfish in the tank. The goldfish waste is used by the plants to help them grow and the water is filtered by the plants to help keep it clean for the fish.
The class pets here at PALCS are just another part of our innovative community, and they have also become part of the family! PALCS intends to make a 24/7 livestream available in the future, so stay tuned!
