CART students design zoo enrichment tools for Fresno Chaffee animals

At the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, students are spending a semester turning science class into a working partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The project reaches beyond a classroom assignment: 11th- and 12th-grade students from Fresno and Clovis unified school districts are researching animals, building enrichment tools and learning how design decisions affect both animal behavior and professional zoo care.

CART is a 75,000-square-foot research and technology facility where students work with outside partners, and the zoo collaboration has been going on for years. In this project, students study an assigned animal and then design devices meant to encourage natural behaviors. Environmental science teacher Titus Patton said the work can include feeding enrichment or tools that help animals move through their pens differently or interact with objects in new ways.

The assignments are divided by skill level. First-year students do the foundational fabrication, including cutting wood and sanding materials. Second-year engineering students take on more advanced design and safety work. That progression matters because it gives students a path from basic shop skills to work that resembles the kind of testing, iteration and risk review found in engineering and design jobs.

One of the most practical pieces of the collaboration is an app students are helping develop for zookeepers. The goal is to track how animals interact with enrichment items, giving staff a way to evaluate what works and what does not. Ronnie Kerestus, whom Fresno Chaffee Zoo identifies as curator of animal outreach, bird show and well-being/enrichment, said the project pushes animal care further. “Now enrichment gets to be bigger, better and automatic, and we can go even further and then with an app being developed for enrichment to evaluate that enrichment that's being given to them, and all just kind of comes together,” Kerestus said.

The Fresno County Superintendent of Schools said CART students also created tools such as a faux prey feeder, designed to spark natural behaviors through research, design and direct work with zookeepers. For students headed toward engineering, design or technical trades, the result is a portfolio of real products built for a public institution, not a class exercise that ends when the bell rings.

Senior Benjamin Bossarte said the experience gives students resume-worthy hands-on learning they can use in job interviews later. That is the larger value of the project for Fresno County: it links a local school pipeline, a major zoo and practical skill-building in a way that can support both animal welfare and student careers. Fresno Chaffee Zoo says its mission is to inspire care for animals, create meaningful connections, build community and save wildlife, and this partnership puts those goals into daily practice.