Middle school chameleon project

[Krautz33]

Hello, my name is Mike Krautzel. I am a middle school teacher at Garnet Valley, Pa. I am looking to do a project in my classroom with a chameleon. I have had all the supplies donated to my classroom and I am searching for someone who would be interested in donating a chameleon to this project. I am hoping that the students learn many valuable lessons and hope that some of them become potential chameleon owners themselves someday. i am currently a care giver to two Jackson chameleons of my own.
Thanks Mike

 

[Syreptyon]

How many students are in your class? I think it would take an extraordinarily "easy-going" chameleon to be able to do this safely and responsibly without causing huge amounts of stress to the chameleon. Especially if you expect a chameleon to be donated to you, that means it will have to be removed from the environment with which it is familiar (stressful) and transported to this new environment (stressful), only to be put in the middle of a classroom filled with way more people than most chameleons ever encounter on a daily basis (very stressful)...

I love the idea of outreach to young folk, but I just have to question whether this would have the best interests of the chameleon in mind. Educating people about them is a praiseworthy thing, but there are many other reptiles which are more suited to a classroom environment - especially with kids as young as middle schoolers.

 

[Krautz33]

Ok, I love the feedback, I have the whole set up for a chameleon from zoo med... What other lizards do you think would do well in that set up and in a classroom environment... The last thing I would want is to have a bad situation for the chameleon

 

[Syreptyon]

Good question! When I was in grade school still, it was common to have biology classrooms with bearded dragons, leopard geckos, turtles, or even snakes. As for what else you can use in the zoo med cage, that I'm not totally sure. They seem to be optimized for arboreal animals, so maybe some kind of climbing geckos or arboreal snakes? I honestly don't know, though - I've never actually seen a screen cage with anything other than a chameleon in it so I would just be sure to research what other species can be safely maintained in an open air environment