Thursday evening, I was privileged to attend a screening for Jeff Corwin’s The Vanishing Frog, a new Animal Planet Documentary in Charlotte, NC at the Discovery Place.  Jeff began his presentation by stating “It was hard to get people to see that frogs are sexy things,” and I very much agreed.  He continued saying that there are currently 6,000 species of amphibians and within just a few years, we would lose 3,000 of them (since the 1980’s, 120 of these species have already vanished).  The Vanishing Frog is a documentary about these species in danger.  I found the film to be extremely interesting and intriguing and “Yes, I even thought that the frogs were cute.”
          During the day, Jeff Corwin was able to visit local Charlotte schools and talk with the students.  One of the audience members asked Mr. Corwin about the types of questions that he was asked.  He said that his favorite question from students was always the ones that asked “How can I help?”  His reply was to start by looking in your local town or community for a “species in crisis” or for other ways that you could get involved with any community organization or efforts to help the environment.  He then proceeded to discuss his first encounter with nature.  As an inner city kid, there were no backyard areas to observe nature so his father would take him to the “inner city pond” where he discovered frogs and their world.  He now has a passion for nature that he shares with the entire world through his documentaries on Animal Planet.
          The Vanishing Frog will premier November 20th at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on Animal Planet.  Also on November 20th, subscribers to Discovery Education Science will find the episode available for the classroom.  If you would like more information about The Vanishing Frog, check out the following links:

• Animal Planet:  The Vanishing Frog
• Save the Frog
• Discovery Education’s Save the Frog Lesson Plans