Reptiles used to inspire Scott City seventh-graders

The northern water snake visiting Scott City Middle School Friday was more comfortable with students than some of the students were with it.

Pam Propst wasn't among those who shied away as the snake was brought around the classroom. Instead, the seventh-grader held out her hand and watched as the greenish-gray snake began to slip under her jacket sleeve.

"Oh. I think he likes me," she said.

The water snake -- on loan with four others from the Cape Girardeau County Park -- was part of a lesson plan in seventh-grade English teacher Sarah Reineke's class.

In recent weeks, Reineke's students researched Missouri snakes, made drawings of the slithering reptiles and have read "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," Rudyard Kipling's story about a mongoose who battles two cobras.

Even the twinkling Christmas tree at the front of Reineke's classroom is decorated with life-sized plastic lizards and snakes.

The idea to focus on snakes came from a conservation education program that Reineke attended last summer.

"I thought, 'wow, I can use all of these natural resources to teach communication arts,'" Reineke said. "I asked myself, 'what do kids feel deeply about?' Reptiles. They either love or hate them."

Karel Borowiak with the Missouri Department of Conservation brought two venomous and three nonvenomous snakes to the school as part of a presentation for all of Reineke's students.

Though the venomous snakes stayed locked in their cages, Borowiak allowed students to take turns petting the rough green snake, speckled black snake and the northern water snake.

"A lot of people think they're going to be slimy because they're shiny," Borowiak said. "They think, 'ooh yuck, snakes.'"

cclark@semissourian.com

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