Lizards and Friends
A website about lizards, scientists who study lizards, and kids who think lizards are cool!
Blog!
If you’re a kid in the United States, you’ve probably had to do a project for your school’s annual science fair. First, you have to think of an interesting question, and then you conduct your experiment and collect your data.[…]
It’s easy for all of us to list lots of ways that lizards are different from people. For example, most lizards are much smaller than us. They are also scaly and don’t like the cold at all, so they’ll never[…]
Hi, I’m Alyssa and I’m a research student in the Lizard Lab. My project involves working with Texas Spiny Lizards. I am using DNA to see how lizards in different parks in San Antonio are related to one another. In[…]
Hi! My name is Brittney, and I am the new lab technician here in the Johnson lab. I did not have much experience with lizards before I came here, but I am learning a lot about them now. One job[…]
In the Lizard Lab, we often spend our summers outside collecting data on the animals we study! This summer, we’re working in Puerto Rico to study eight different species of anole lizards there. We are living at a field station[…]
Here in Puerto Rico, we are studying several species of lizards that scientists don’t know much about yet. One of those species is called the Ponce Grass Anole (Ponce is a town in southern Puerto Rico), and its scientific name[…]
The Lizard Lab is lucky to have a high school student working with us this summer! Sian Rips is a junior at the International School of the Americas in San Antonio, and she’s become involved in several projects in the[…]
It’s the end of the spring semester for the members of the Lizard Lab, and we just had a party to celebrate all of our accomplishments this year! We had a lot to be excited about – all the data[…]
Hi! My name is Lauren and I study biology and environmental studies at Trinity University. One of my favorite ways to learn about biology and the environment is by studying lizards with Dr. Johnson in her lab! In the lab,[…]
Hi! My name is Michael. I just graduated from college, and now I am working in the Lizard Lab. I get to work on so many cool projects, but I am really excited to tell you about one project in[…]
Club LizKids
Are you a kid (or an adult) excited about lizards? Then Club LizKids is for you! (if you are under 13 years old, you need to ask for permission from your parent or guardian to sign up for the club)
Members of Club LizKids will receive monthly emails with cool pictures and interesting facts about lizards. We will not share your email address with anyone else, and we will only use your email address to send you Club LizKids updates.
Email Us
We’d like to hear from you!
Do you have a question about lizards for a member of the Lizard Lab? Have you seen lizards do something funny, or cool, or confusing? Or do you have another question about science? Send us a note, and we’ll email you in response.
For Teachers
Lizards can be excellent classroom pets, and there are many classroom activities in which you can use lizards to teach science, math, reading, writing, and more! The following activities were developed for use in fifth grade classes in Texas, as part of Trinity University’s Science Teaching Institute, to address Texas science teaching standards. We encourage you to adapt these materials in any way you find to be useful in your own classroom.
If you are a teacher near San Antonio, Texas, and would like to invite members of Dr. Michele Johnson’s laboratory to visit your classroom, please contact us at michele.johnson@trinity.edu.
How to keep green anole lizards as classroom pets
(DOC // PDF)
How do lizards get energy from their food? An experimental study in three parts.*
(DOC // PDF)
Oh what a tangled web…An activity exploring food webs, using a simple math model
(DOC // PDF)
About
This website is maintained by Dr. Michele Johnson, a lizard biologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and the members of the Johnson Laboratory. We are scientists who study how and why lizards behave the way they do. You can learn more about the Johnson Lab at www.trinity.edu/mjohnso9.
Michele Johnson has a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution, and the members of the Johnson Lab (called the Lizard Lab on this website) are college students. We hope this website will show how exciting it is to learn new things about lizards, and how anyone can be a scientist by looking carefully at the world around you.
–Johnson Lab, 2013–
Support for this website comes from the National Science Foundation (IOS-1257021) and from Trinity University’s Department of Biology
This website is maintained by Dr. Michele Johnson. Customized design and graphics by Tara Whittle.