A bit about Mr. Van and the inspiration
Originally from Michigan and now residing in Florida, I have been teaching middle school science since 2001. Part of our Life Science course covers animals, and since 2010 I have taken that element of my job and used it as an outlet for photography. Once edited, cropped, and cleaned up, I printed the photographs and took them out for laminating. I wrote the common names on the back and brought them to class. As we studied the different groups of animals, I would break out my photographs and have students classify the animals. This would expose them to a wide variety of animals within a particular group - more than a textbook would ever show. It also gave me an opportunity to put in a plug for our local zoos, aquariums, or preserves.
I had been playing around with building websites in 2013 and began incorporating it into my Physical Science course. In February 2015 I realized I could build a site for my animal collection. This would enable students to have constant access to my collection even after our Life Science concluded. It also meant others (colleagues, nieces, nephews, you) could also get to the collection. Finally, it was less expensive than printing and laminating hundreds more pictures long after I had built my photo collection to a size that met the needs of my Life Science course.
I had been playing around with building websites in 2013 and began incorporating it into my Physical Science course. In February 2015 I realized I could build a site for my animal collection. This would enable students to have constant access to my collection even after our Life Science concluded. It also meant others (colleagues, nieces, nephews, you) could also get to the collection. Finally, it was less expensive than printing and laminating hundreds more pictures long after I had built my photo collection to a size that met the needs of my Life Science course.