By Denise Smith Amos
The Cincinnati Enquirer

AVONDALE - Badger Johnson is learning patience these days from a half-dozen, 2-foot-high teachers bedecked in black-and-white.

The 16-year-old junior from Fort Thomas attends the Cincinnati Zoo Academy, a Cincinnati Public magnet school that, officials say, is the only college-preparatory high school in the nation operating on zoo grounds.

Zoo Academy students Badger Johnson, 16, and Susan Lipps, 16, feed penguins during a lab class. (Steven M. Herppich photo)

Badger started a recent day by stuffing vitamin pills into the mouths of dead fish and then coaxing six reluctant King penguins to open up and eat what's good for them. It was part of his daily assignment.

Some penguins weren't biting, though. He stood next to a gaggle of the equivocating birds for about 15 minutes, holding a fish over their heads, trying not to be discouraged as they seemed to ignore him.

King penguins tend to think and act in groups, explained zookeeper Rickey Kinley. Get one to eat and the others will follow suit, but annoy one of them and it'll jump into the water with the others splashing in behind him.

Finally, when one of the birds stuck up its head and opened its beak, Badger allowed himself a small smile and dropped a vitamin-enriched fish down its throat.

So begins a typical day at a not so typical high school.

The Cincinnati Zoo Academy is a one-of-a-kind school, jointly run by staff at Hughes Center in Clifton and the zoo in its education building.

Nationwide, at least 15 schools are affiliated with zoos, but usually that involves brief, part-time courses.

The Cincinnati Zoo Academy is the only wholly enclosed, college-preparatory school operating on zoo grounds.

There, 32 juniors and seniors work two hours a day with zookeepers before attending three hours of classes in anything from pre-calculus and English to zoology and botany.

"This is one of our most important partnerships," said David Jenike, executive director of education at the zoo. "It exemplifies the best we can offer for a high school - small classes, excellent teachers and a learning environment that uses the zoo's facilities as a lab."

Unique program to grow

It's a small school, but its 32 students this year is close to capacity for the two classrooms. Public school students attend for free. Students living outside Cincinnati Public Schools district, like Badger, pay as much as $8,500 in tuition.

There are plans to make the academy larger.

In 2005, when the zoo opens its $8.2 million Harold C. Schott Education Center, the Zoo Academy will expand to 50 students, said Glen Schulte, lead teacher.

Students in the program spend their ninth and 10th grades at Hughes, in its Cincinnati Academy of Mathematics and Science. As upperclassmen, they take all their classes at the zoo.

The academy wasn't always a school. Founded in 1975, it used to be a part-time vocational program, Schulte said, in which students worked with animals for up to four hours a day.

Zoology has changed over the years, Schulte said, as zoos increasingly require two- or four-year college degrees.

In 1995, Zoo Academy beefed up its academics.

"We had students who wanted to go to college, but had an incredibly difficult time because they didn't have the academics they needed," Schulte said. "We wanted to get them the experience in the field and give them the academics. The goal is now college, not graduating from school and going to work."

Staying away from danger

Every two weeks, students rotate to a different part of the zoo. One week they're working with red pandas, the next week, they're caring for a Sumatran rhino.

Zoo keepers keep them away from the dangerous and technical tasks, such as moving carnivores around cages and habitat. Mostly, students clean cages and prepare food for animals. But they must learn on the spot.

Amir Kavyani, 17, of Westwood, was sweeping and hosing down the primary cage for Muhindu, the zoo's only giraffe, as zookeeper Val Nastold coached him on feeding giraffes.

Nastold taught Amir how to electronically lower a basket from two stories above and check the bale of alfalfa in it to see if it needed replacement before Muhindu could return to her cage.

Several students said zookeepers enjoy stumping them on animal facts. Susan Lipps, 16, of Price Hill, complained jokingly that keepers asked her to rattle off the species of African elephants at the zoo.

"We do test them a lot," Nastold said. "They need to know this stuff. Some of them are going to become vets."

Students spend the bulk of their school day with the academy's four teachers, who use computer software, digital microscopes and "Smartboards" - computerized blackboards - to conduct 90-minute classes on economics, chemistry and other subjects.

Zoological studies is more than animal husbandry, Schulte said. It melds biochemistry, cell biology, embryology, evolution, virology - even bacteria and fungus studies.

"We have to have a good handle on all areas of living things," Schulte said.

Learning about the flu

On a recent morning, juniors described how Asian farming practices led to the evolution and distribution of new types of the flu.

Farmers become infected with flu from animals, one student says, and spread it to other people by coughing and sneezing.

Too simple, says another student. Viruses start in fish, and end up in ducks and other migratory birds that eat the fish, he said. Then pigs eat bird feces and contract the virus, and the virus changes into a form that humans contract.

Schulte explained that they all were right - but they missed the first step. Fish get viruses first by eating mosquitoes.

"If any of you don't have your homework today, then your job will be to stand outside and feed the mosquitoes," Schulte said to laughter.

The kids turned in an analytical paper describing a computer simulation called the Sick Fish Lab. Each student was a virtual zoo owner, trying to save thousands of fish from a mysterious but deadly contagion in the tanks.

Using computer simulations, the students tried various doses of antibiotics and vaccines. Those who saved the most fish - without bankrupting the zoo - received the most points, Schulte said.

"One of our most important issues is to use science to save species," Jenike said. "This (school) is an opportunity for the kids to learn science and see how it is applied to that."

About Zoo Academy

Founded: 1975. Zoo Academy is part of Cincinnati Public Schools. Its part-time, vocational program became a four-year, college preparatory magnet school in 1995. It is affiliated with the Hughes Center in Clifton.

Enrollment: 32 (15 juniors and 17 seniors). Juniors and seniors must first attend Cincinnati Academy of Mathematics and Science at Hughes. Nearly two-thirds are minorities.

Annual tuition: Free to CPS students; $6,051.13 to Ohio students living outside the district; $8,475.69 for students from outside the state

Class work: Students spend 10 hours a week with animals and zookeepers. The rest of the time, they're in classrooms at the zoo's Education Center. Students take zoology, chemistry, anatomy/physiology, physics, botany, algebra, English, government, economics, pre-calculus and calculus. Seniors do a project.

Graduation rate: 100 percent the past five years. Of last year's 14 graduates, 12 applied to college and were accepted.

Lead teacher: Glen Schulte, 39, of Green Township has been teaching for 17 years, including the last eight at Zoo Academy. Teaches zoology, botany and physics.

What students say: "(Mr. Schulte) is like a walking dictionary or encyclopedia," said Brittany Nurre, 16, a junior, of Hyde Park.

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E-mail damos@enquirer.com

Classrooms that work

This series spotlights classrooms in which teachers are challenging students in bold, innovative ways. To nominate a class, e-mail bcieslewicz@enquirer.com, fax (513) 768-8340 or write Bill Cieslewicz, education editor, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202. Include your name, daytime phone, e-mail and school.