Welcome to Reach Out! Corner, AALAS’ new bimonthly place to pick up useful and innovative ideas for making your local public outreach initiatives as positive and productive as possible. If you have a suggestion you would like to contribute or need materials to use at your next outreach presentation, please contact us via e-mail at info@aalas.org.
Show How It Really Is!
The next time you give a classroom presentation, take along a fully equipped mouse or rat cage, being sure to include the bedding, food, water bottle, cage card, and enrichment tools. Talk about the characteristics and purpose of each component of the cage to let the children see how much time and care goes into just one animal cage. Having tangible items for the kids to see and touch not only will spark their curiosity, but will give them a glimpse of what the actual environment is like for live rodents in an animal facility.
Safety first: If allowing the kids to touch the materials, bring along a new, unopened box of gloves—and be sure the gloves are latex-free!
Visit the AALAS Foundation web site for more information about Public Outreach and how you can help spread the message about the importance of what you do for a living!
Sincerity and Honesty—Always the Best Policy!
You will want to be sincere and honest when talking with students and teachers in the classroom. Students often have preconceived, negative notions about the use of animals in research, and skirting sensitive issues such as euthanasia, end points, or toxicity testing may reinforce their convictions.
Be honest with your responses, and be sure your answers are on a level and of a depth the students will understand. If you do not know an answer to a question, tell them so. Do, however, find the answer quickly and get back with them soon after your presentation.
Being a professional in this field, you know the animals in your care receive quality care and treatment, and that their welfare is your first concern. Let the students and teachers know this, too, by expressing your compassion for your animals! They will soon see your genuine concern for the laboratory animals and begin to better understand that the people tending to the animals used in research really do care about them.
Let's Talk Clean
Most people outside our field do not realize the great lengths we go to every day to make sure our animals have clean caging, equipment, and supplies. They have no concept of the cleaning schedules and record keeping involved. Educate the unknowing!
Here are some ideas for classroom activities and/or discussion materials related to cleaning and sanitization:
Discuss the differences between cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting, and sterilizing.
Bring a copy of your weekly cage changing schedule and explain why the schedule is set up the way it is. Include why certain animals are changed on certain days, how the schedule is dependent on the capacity of your washers, and other related details.
Take samples of your washroom temperature tape logs, explain how they were used, and what happens when it doesn’t change colors.
Bring photocopies of labels from some of your disinfectants and use them to discuss attributes such as the importance of following label directions, application methods, pH, dilution, contact time, and other traits.
To get the kids thinking about just how strict and thorough our sanitation requirements are, ask them how often they sanitize their own pet’s food and water bowls. See if they do it daily and find out if their cleaning actually includes a cycle through the dishwasher. For a homework assignment, get them to ask their parents on what temperature their home hot water heater is set. Most hot water in homes is not nearly as high as the 180°F required in an animal facility. Explain why we use 180°F in our facilities and why they may not at home.
Learning about hygiene within the facility can easily fill any classroom presentation time you have scheduled and will help your audience better understand how devoted we are to caring for the well-being of our animals.
Sharing Your Job with Your Loved Ones
Do you commonly leave work, go home, and talk to your significant other or children about their day but conveniently omit discussion of your own day at work? Do you think about participating in career day at your child’s school, but never follow through? Why is that? You enjoy your job. You are proud to be there every day taking care of the research animals. You know the research done at your company/facility helps people and animals; even your own family directly benefits!
So, why is it you are not sharing? They are your children, your spouse, and your friends. If anyone needs to learn about and understand your job, it is them. They are your built-in support network, your cheerleaders. They are the ultimate reason you do what you do.
Consider using these tips and pointers.
If you are uncomfortable talking about your job and the use of animals in research, then practice! Pretend the tape recorder in the car seat next to you on the way home from work is your child. Share your day! Play it back. What did you like? What would you like to say differently? Practice again tomorrow. Practice in the bathroom mirror. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel actually doing it.
You know your children love animals. They probably already know you love them as well. Tell them that is why you do what you do each day. Explain that facilities want people like you and your children working for them—because you love animals and you care about what happens to them.
Rent a movie that contains false information about animal research. Sit down with your family, pausing the tape when necessary, to explain what an actual research environment is like.
The next time you take your pets to the vet, bring your children. Let the doctor take your kids aside and talk to them about recent advances in medicines and treatments pets receive now because of animal research. If possible, coordinate this trip with your vet ahead of time so as not to hinder his/her schedule.
Bring your family to work with you for a personal tour of your facility (only if your facility policy allows!) There’s no better way for them to learn about your job than to witness it first-hand.
Encourage your local AALAS branch to plan programs for children and families. Conduct an Animal Research Fair at your facility or next branch meeting.
The ultimate learning experience, however, can occur at an AALAS National Meeting. Bring your children to this year’s meeting. Yes, they may miss some school, but think of the caliber of hands-on learning your children will receive while touring the expansive exhibit hall!
Remember, nobody knows your job better than you! Don’t leave them wondering. Don’t let the propaganda from others be the source of information for your family.
Become a Classroom Mentor
Think back to your elementary school days. Did you have an animal or two (or even more!) in your classroom? Remember taking turns cleaning their cages, playing with them until the teacher was ready to start class, and yes, even watching them burrow, climb, or play in their cage instead of paying attention to the teacher? Live animals in the classroom help kids learn to care, to observe, and to be responsible. Every classroom should have one (or more)!
Unfortunately, many teachers do not keep animals in their classrooms. The reasons are varied, but may include lack of knowledge on caring for animals, inadequate funds to buy necessary equipment and supplies for the animals, or an unsupportive principal or school board.
This is where you come in. You are the professional caregivers for animals! Caring for animals is your profession, and hopefully, this is a profession of passion.
So, share your passion. Take a local classroom or two “under your wing.” Visit the classroom and talk to the kids about your job and the importance of proper animal care. Offer assistance and guidance to the teacher in caring for their animals. Provide them with retired caging and extra bedding (check with your company policies first). Provide basic veterinary assistance, treatments, and even euthanasia when necessary (within the scope allowed by your position and facility policies.) Provide the teachers with a list of resources for caging, bedding, feed, and other items necessary for appropriate animal care. Just be there! Answer any questions the teacher may have. Make periodic visits to the classroom to check on the animals. Show the students and teacher that laboratory animal professionals really do care about the well-being of all animals!
Reach Out! Toolbox
Say you need to tighten a screw, want to hang a picture, or are doing some repairs on your car. What do you use? You use tools from your toolbox, of course.
Now imagine you have a presentation to give for your child’s class or you’ve been asked to give a career day presentation at the local school. What do you use? Of course, you use the new Reach Out! Toolbox.
When you have a job to do, you need the right tools. Well, that is exactly what the Reach Out! Toolbox provides for you. The Reach Out! Toolbox is not literally a “box” but rather a collection of “tools” needed for planning or conducting public outreach sessions within your local community. Information available includes:
Training and classroom overhead originals
Resources for locating local schools
Facts about our field
PowerPoint presentations
Ideas for props and visuals
Resources to leave with teachers
Classroom activities
Animal Research Fair Planning Guide
The Reach Out! Toolbox is available, for your convenience, by download from both the AALAS and AALAS Foundation (under “Public Outreach”) web sites. Be sure to use the proper tools in your next outreach presentation! Here’s an idea: Consider using the Animal Research Fair Planning Guide in the Reach Out! Toolbox to plan and conduct an Animal Research Fair during International Laboratory Animal Technician Week!
Together for Life—Every Day of the Year
The AALAS Foundation brings AALAS members yet another quality public outreach tool—the “Together for Life” Classroom Calendar. This multi-purpose outreach tool, designed with students and teachers in grades 6-10 in mind, is a must have for every science classroom.
The title of the calendar/poster, “Together for Life…Every Day of the Year,” captures the essence of what this calendar and biomedical research are about—people and animals devoting their lives every day to biomedical research to find disease cures and ways to improve life for both people and animals.
The two-sided “Together for Life” Classroom Calendar has several important functions:
Provides an 18-month calendar for everyday use within the classroom. The calendar runs from January 2005 through June 2006.
Displays an eye-catching classroom poster full of colorful photos, educational facts, and unique trivia about the use of animals in research and the benefits of research to people and animals.
Supplies educators with several easily reproducible classroom and homework activities directly relating to the field of laboratory animal science.
Furnishes a list of ideas for monthly reinforcement activities students can do for extra credit or as special assignments. These activities encourage critical thinking skills, involvement in the community, and group participation.
Provides teachers with contact information for AALAS, the AALAS Foundation, many other research advocacy organizations, and the URL for the Kids-4-Research web site. The Kids-4-Research site is an excellent resource for teachers in any discipline that may need information on biomedical research.
The “Together for Life” calendar/poster is available free of charge from the AALAS office. Go online to the AALAS Bookstore to order enough for all of the teachers in your area. The AALAS Foundation encourages individuals, facilities, and branches to order as many calendars as you may need. The individual sections of content of the poster are also available by download from both the AALAS and AALAS Foundation (under “Public Outreach”) web sites.
Take a handful of these posters to the next school board or PTA meeting in your local area!
The AALAS Foundation would like to thank Millennium Pharmceuticals for their corporate sponsorship of this project.
AALAS Caring for Animals
The AALAS Board of Trustees recently approved a new AALAS position statement. Developed by the AALAS Scientific Advisory Committee, the
Use of Animals in Precollege Education states that the appropriate and humane use of animals in the elementary and secondary classrooms can provide significant educational benefits to the students, and that a positive interaction between students and animals in the classroom enhances not only scientific learning, but also provides an additional avenue promoting the development and growth of the students’ sense of responsibility and respect for all living things.
As part of its broader educational mission to ensure that all animal use is performed responsibly and humanely, AALAS has also developed a booklet called AALAS Caring for Animals: A Guide to Animals in the Classroom to assist teachers with the responsible and humane care of animals in the classroom. All of these materials can be downloaded for free from the AALAS web site or the Teacher link on the Kids-4-Research web site. Booklet sections available include:
The Use of Animals in Precollege Education (position statement)
Should You Have a Pet in Your Classroom?
Recognizing Common Diseases in Animals in the Classroom
Signs of Pain and Distress in Rodents and Other Classroom Animals
Animals in the Classroom: Allergy and Asthma Concerns
Establishing a Critter Care Committee
Species-Specific Animal Care Sheets
Biomedical Graffiti
We all have read about or even seen first-hand some of the graffiti and other “statements” made by animal rights activists. Though destructive and often illegal, their graffiti serves a purpose for these groups—it allows them to get their message out. AALAS members need to do the same. Not by spray-painting graffiti on the walls, but by using “educational expressions” to get our message out!
The AALAS Foundation has numerous materials to use for such purposes, including posters, cards, flyers, and brochures. These can be given to co-workers, branch members, and family members, but can also be passed on to people you do not know. Try these suggestions.
When going to a fast food restaurant, leave a flyer or a Kids-4-Research “computer mouse” on the table after you leave. Yes, it may get tossed, but the chances of it catching someone’s attention first are high.
The next time you go to your doctor, give him/her a copy of a Foundation poster. Ask if it could be posted in their waiting room. How could a medical doctor, who uses the benefits of biomedical research every day, deny you? You might even ask to leave flyers, too. Do the same at your veterinarian’s office.
Take a handful of career items to your local high school guidance office. These counselors are always looking for information on careers to pass on to students. Lab animal science has many career choices for kids who want to become veterinarians!
There are many ways to make educational expressions that are legal, safe, and do not deface property. Be creative with your biomedical graffiti!
Be sure to visit the “public outreach materials” section within the AALAS Bookstore to order your educational expressions today! All are free (shipping charges will apply to large orders) and are effective in getting our message out.
Do you have an idea for a unique public outreach project? Visit the “Grants” link on the AALAS Foundation web site and submit your idea today!
Consult the Reach Out! Toolbox
The 2005-2006 school year has already entered into its second half. Have you made an appointment to visit a local classroom within the next couple of months? AALAS and the AALAS Foundation have many materials to help make your classroom presentation a successful one.
One of these is the Reach Out! Toolbox, which contains a collection of “tools” you can use to plan and present a classroom talk. A couple of specific tools I suggest using with middle school classrooms and above are the Direct Impact Questionnaire and the Opinion Survey on the Use of Animals. Both are great for jump-starting the kids into seriously thinking about the use of animals in research.
Many kids either have pre-formed opinions or have not really given the topic much thought, so the Direct Impact Questionnaire is a great way to introduce the kids to the many benefits they receive every day because of animal research. The questionnaire is presented in such a manner that the students see a wide variety of products and procedures they are familiar with that seemingly have no connection to biomedical research. However, when digging deeper the students discover that these are all possible and safe because of the use of animals in medical and product safety testing. Most kids are amazed to learn so many things they use or are exposed to daily are directly affected by animal research.
The Opinion Survey on the Use of Animals is another great tool for the classroom. This short survey asks for opinions on a variety of animal uses in today’s society, such as keeping a pet, hunting for sport versus food, and wearing fur coats. The survey allows students and others to better put their feelings about the use of animals in perspective when comparing them to other uses of animals. This questionnaire makes a great science fair project and is also perfect for introducing the collection and presentation of data using spreadsheet software. Directions for usage are on the back side of each activity.
Whether you use these activities as part of your presentation or pass them on to the teacher to use as a classroom activity, they are great tools for introducing the use of animals in research to students. Take advantage of these and the other materials in the Reach Out! Toolbox and schedule a classroom presentation before school lets out again in a few months!
Presentation Ice-Breakers
With spring just around the corner, many AALAS members are being asked to participate in community outreach programs or to give a presentation at their child’s school. It can sometimes be difficult getting your presentation going. The students may need a little warming up to get in a critical thinking mode. See if some of these ice-breakers might be of use:
Compare and contrast pets outdoors in Florida in the winter versus outdoors in Alaska in the winter. Reverse the season to summer for a different discussion. Bring into the discussion how animals in research are maintained in a constant, healthy environment.
Compile a list of movies or television shows that show or describe animals used in research in one way or another. As a group, have everyone talk about their impressions of each movie’s message. What were the movies trying to say about the use of animals in research? Ask the students whether or not they agree and why.
Go around the room and have each student complete this sentence: “If I were a biomedical researcher, I’d find a cure or treatment for_________________.” Each student should try to name a different disease or medical condition. Tell the kids about a disease you would cure and why.
Ask all the students what their favorite zoo animals are. Discuss how research keeps these animals healthy, how reproductive research may save many from extinction, and how environmental enrichment keeps them happy.
Write down on the board or overhead the scientific names of several common lab animal species. Discuss nomenclature formatting rules. Give the kids a lesson in pronunciation of the names. Be sure to include Homo sapiens as most kids are familiar with that one!
You can probably think of other similar topics to bring up as ice-breakers. In most cases, once the kids get thinking about health-related issues and research, they will be more receptive to your presentation and will even participate in discussions.
For a list of similar activities, check out the research rousers —they are a great way for teachers and for AALAS members to integrate laboratory animal science into the classroom setting.
“Research rousers” are part of the Together for Life classroom calendar/poster—one of many outreach materials funded by the AALAS Foundation. The AALAS Foundation’s mission is to support educational outreach on the essential role of responsible laboratory animal care and use in science to advance human and animal health. Learn more at http://aalasfoundation.org.
AREA Program = Public Outreach in Action
Many of you attended the AALAS National Meeting in St. Louis last fall and probably remember the high school students touring the Exhibit Hall. They were invited to attend the meeting as part of the annual Animal Research Education & Awareness (AREA) Program. Now approaching its 12th year, the AREA program has made a positive impact on many students.
Below are select statements from evaluation forms returned at the end of the St. Louis AREA Program. It is interesting to see what types of things the kids were unaware of before attending this session, picked up on during the session, and had to say about AALAS members and our field after the session.
Was today’s program what you expected? Why or why not?
I actually expected the program to be boring, but it was actually the opposite. I had fun learning.
Today’s AREA program was more than what I expected because when I first came I had a negative opinion about animal testing, but now I feel that animal research is very important.
I didn’t expect it to be fun. I thought I was going to sleep all day but it was fun and I didn’t know how important some animals are.
What do you feel was the most important thing you learned?
That animal testing is not just procedures on helpless animals but it’s saving lives of human beings.
That they don’t buy their animals from pet stores.
My life has been impacted by animal research and I didn’t know it.
That animal research is used for a reason and not just to be mean.
Everyone benefits from animal research. My dad was saved from cancer by animal research.
It doesn’t just specify in being a veterinarian. You can be an engineer, publisher, and computer tech, and you’ll still be involved in research.
What did you like best about the program or the exhibit hall? Why?
I liked how everyone was nice and dedicated to their beliefs.
The excitement presented by all of the people working.
The exhibit hall had plenty of inventions that I had never thought existed.
That there are organizations that watch out for the well-being of the animals.
It was very informative and everyone was very friendly and seemed interested in explaining, showing, and reviewing the very educational information with us.
How they shipped the animals from place to place.
Animals aren’t mistreated in animal research. They are care for properly and watched closely.
See, what you do every day does matter! If your local AALAS branch would like information on how to conduct an AREA program at your next big meeting, email info@aalas.org.
Let's Talk Careers
When you were in elementary school, what did you want to be when you “grew up”? Perhaps a veterinarian? That was the case for many of us. Had that changed by the time you reached junior or senior high school? Maybe then you wanted to be a marine biologist or work in a zoo? You knew that you wanted to work with animals, but what opportunities were there other than those few jobs?
How many of you spent years early in your career doing other jobs that eventually led you to laboratory animal science? Don’t you wish you had known about the rewarding career choices available in our field then? Well, kids in schools across the country today will have that opportunity thanks to one of the newly funded products from the AALAS Foundation. Accept the Challenge to Care: Careers in Laboratory Animal Science was originally created in the late 1990s and has been completely remade thanks to dedicated financial support from Novartis and Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Inc. The target audience of the video is high school students who are exploring possible career paths, yet junior high and even college students will benefit from its contents.
Accept the Challenge to Care is divided into three segments. The first segment is an introduction to laboratory animal science and the benefits humans and animals receive from the use of animals in biomedical research. The second section provides viewers with a brief description of some of the most common careers, both those working directly and indirectly with animals. The final segment contains clips of people actually working in the field giving testimonials as to why they are in the field. The film includes many fascinating scenes of people working in a lab animal facility and the jobs that are so important to our field.
The new Accept the Challenge to Care video is 15 minutes in length, comes in both DVD and VHS formats, and is available online through the AALAS Bookstore. Be sure to take a copy with you to your next Career Day event or career presentation!
—they are a great way for teachers and for AALAS members to integrate laboratory animal science into the classroom setting. 
