Intro: Welcome to the PCS Edventures Educator Spotlight Series! Today, we're highlighting the incredible work of Tera Andrews, a dedicated community school coordinator who's transforming her summer program into a hub of curiosity and discovery. Join us as she shares how bringing BrickLab Zoo to her out-of-school programming has empowered students to explore the animal kingdom, make real-world connections, and grow skills that could last a lifetime.
Staci Mitzman: First, give me a brief overview of your title and your background.
Tera Andrews: Okay, I'm Tera Andrews, I am the community school coordinator at Harwood Elementary in Rigby. As the community school coordinator, I'm in charge of the services that we provide at Harwood Elementary that involve the community. Basically community outreach – a little bit of social work.
Staci Mitzman: Let's just start off by telling me what this program helped to overcome. So when you implemented this, walk me back to – and it was in a summer program – it was when you first used it.
Tera Andrews: Yes.
Staci Mitzman: How did this help you? What challenges were you having beforehand and how did this program help address those challenges?
Tera Andrews: It gave us a theme to go by. We based our whole day on the animal we were studying with the BrickLab. They enjoyed the animals. They enjoyed learning about the animals every day - that was a lot of fun. And we did yoga with them as well. There's a lady, I can't remember her name – but we found her and she did different yoga every morning that was based on animals – which was a lot of fun. It just gave us good structure to start our day with. And then the kids knew that that was the animal they were going to learn about that day. And if they did a craft or whatever, it was based on that animal from PCS Edventures.
Staci Mitzman: That is fun. Okay, so I'm going to back up just a little bit. So when you first got this box, were you the one that was able to open it for the first time and see everything that was in there? Walk me through that moment in just familiarizing yourself with the curriculum and kind of getting started.
Tera Andrews: They were organized, they were really great. I felt like it was more of a one – like individual build. And so there was more prep as far as prepping. We had twenty – trying to think, twenty four kids I think in that group. And so getting that many kits together was a little bit more labor intensive, for lack of a better phrase. Not hard. Just took a little more time to prep it every day rather than prepping for one group. I'm prepping for individual kids. But again, super organized. Everything was in there. Everything is still in there. Very organized. You can pick it up, you can go, you can take it in a classroom and you can teach it right now if you wanted to.
Staci Mitzman: What were they most excited about as they saw their animals kind of come to life? Talk about some of those things that maybe you discussed, any questions that they had, comments that they had – some of those aha moments, some of the things that they might have been excited about. And what was your favorite part about the actual building?
Tera Andrews: So I think for the kids, they learned a lot about habitat and they kind of made the connection that not everything – like a macaw parrot – can't live in Idaho. You know, they're not native to Idaho. Those were kind of aha moments for them of oh, that could live here or that doesn't live here. We even went into is this animal endangered? Is this animal going to be around in fifty years if we don't start taking care of it? We went into some of those conversations and the builds – they were excited. There was a little bit of frustration because they were so little that – oh, my parrot doesn't look like his parrot, which was okay. It's okay that they don't look alike. But they enjoyed seeing each other's projects at the end and comparing them.
Staci Mitzman: How was their excitement about this program coming back – because you had the same group that came back multiple times during the summer program? So you got to work with the same kids?
Tera Andrews: Yes.
Staci Mitzman: So did you sense a level of excitement and confidence? Oh, we gotta do this today. Did it inspire them to want to be there?
Tera Andrews: Yeah, I think they enjoyed it. Some days were more than others depending on the animal there. Kids have different tastes – you know, kids have different interests. But overall, yeah, they enjoyed learning about animals and where they live, and how they live, and how they're different, and how maybe they're the same. And yeah, it was a good program.
Staci Mitzman: So durability, you will use this again?
Tera Andrews: Yeah.
Tera Andrews: Use it with older kids though.
Staci Mitzman: Okay. And that's what I was going to ask. So you feel like you get some more use out of it and then what are some other ways that you would adapt it? You'd use it with older kids? Would there be anything else that you would do in the future or other things that you did do differently this past time?
Tera Andrews: Um, no. I felt like it flowed really easy. It was a good curriculum. It was easily presentable. We just had to kind of adapt it down to that lower level for those younger kids. But that wasn't hard to do either. I did have people in the room with me that summer – interns that were able to go around the room and help them. I didn't ever want to reach a level of frustration where they would get upset and not want to participate. So we try to go around the room and help them put their projects together.
Staci Mitzman: Yeah, I completely get that. And so with this program – lifelong skills – what will they look back and be like, oh, I did that with….
Tera Andrews: I think they learned lots about animals that they've never heard of before and habitats and environments. And again, are they endangered? Are they going to be here? If they had an interest in animals, maybe it helped them grow that interest into future careers. You know, conservation or zookeeping. And the Stem skills… the Stem skills were great. And for those little kids – that hand-eye coordination and that learning to be kind of patient with themselves, and it's okay, it's okay if it's not perfect – It's okay. So learning how to just be patient and different. It's okay if it looks a little different than your neighbors, that's okay.
Staci Mitzman: Do you guys have a zoo over there in Rigby?
Tera Andrews: We don’t have one in Rigby, but we do have one in Idaho Falls about fifteen miles away.
Staci Mitzman: Okay, I was going to say, with it being the summertime, did any of the kids happen to go to the zoo or see any of the animals? Did any of them come back and say, hey!
Tera Andrews: We talked about a field trip that year to the zoo. But honestly, we just didn't have enough help to accommodate that many kids to go. So we didn't. We do have one little boy whose dad is a zookeeper and he takes care of the monkeys. And so he was able to kind of educate us a little bit on animals too, because he's at the zoo a lot with his dad. So that was cute.
Staci Mitzman: That was so sweet. Yeah, that is fun. What a cool dad.
Tera Andrews: Yeah, yeah.
Staci Mitzman: To say your dad works at the zoo.
Tera Andrews: He's in charge of the primates.
Staci Mitzman: Yeah, I love it. Very fun. Okay. Anything else that we haven't talked about with BrickLab Zoo that you'd like to add? Any other final thoughts of using this program?
Tera Andrews: No, I don't think so. I think we covered it.
Staci Mitzman: Okay great.
Outro: Thank you for listening! Tera's story shows how BrickLab Zoo gives every learner a chance to build, discover, and imagine their future. To see her program in action and explore more inspiring educator stories, visit edventures.com/spotlight.
