To high school students, field trips are an ancient souvenir of the past, stuffed away with recess and nap-time. However, the AP Psych students got one more chance to relive their childhood, as all the classes took a trip to the zoo on November 12th (for A-day classes) and November 13th (for B-day classes).

So why the zoo? The psychology classes had just started their unit on “learning,” where they study classical and operant conditioning (look it up – you might learn something). Since the zoo is full of animals and their trainers, it provided the perfect opportunity for students to get a close-up view of animal training and conditioning.

Although the forecast for November 12th promised a bleak and wet day, the rain trickled down to a scattered drizzle for the majority of the trip. With the gray and threatening sky above, the Towson students were still able to see most of the animals and enjoy everything the zoo had to offer.

“Although it rained the entire time, I enjoyed learning and observing the things around me. I had no idea how classical conditioning controlled the way animals were trained. It was incredible to watch!” remarked junior Greg Forlini.

On both days, after roaming around the exhibits for a while, the classes met with a zoo representative, where they participated in experiments and watched videos of animal training.

In these experiments, selected students were the actually the subjects. The rest of the class had to attempt to get the subjects to perform a specific behavior, like touching a certain object, only by using reinforcements (clapping) or punishment (booing), much to the subject’s confusion and eventual frustration.

The trainers even brought in an animal at the end of the session in order for the students to get a more tangible example of conditioning at work. One of the animals introduced was the kinkajou, a small mammal native to South and Central America (pictured above).

Of course, as with any field trip, there was a paper for the psychology students to fill out during the day. But, the overall visit to the zoo managed to be both educational and entertaining.

“It was awesome to watch the zoo trainers teach the animals to do a simple task by making certain noises, or giving certain movements. I learned a lot,” says sophomore Hannah Preston.

With hands-on activities, tons of exhibits, and adorable animals, the A.P. psychology trip to the zoo has all the necessary koalafications to become a successful tradition at Towson High.