Forty-one students are participating in an exciting new program as part of the HS Environmental Science class. Sparkling Science: Wildlife Crime is sponsored by Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation and organized by the Natural History Museum Vienna to sensitize students to the topic of illegal wildlife trade and its importance for international species protection.

Throughout this school year, students will visit the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC, the Austrian customs office and the Vienna Open Lab. They will also have a virtual meeting with the Snake Farm of the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute Bangkok and a campus visit from the Crocodile Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN.

Students recently attended a kick-off meeting at the Natural History Museum Vienna which included hands-on exercises to learn about international uses of protected species as “medicine”, fingerprinting, identifying real vs. imitation specimens, CITES (a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade), and Austria’s most vulnerable species.

Special thanks to our students for being engaged and respectful representatives of our community, and to Dr. Hanrahan for enabling us to offer such an innovative learning opportunity.