6th Graders See the Value of Sea Turtle Research

Bringing Sea Turtle research to the classroom.  By participating in NOAA’s Teacher in the Lab program, I am able to engage my sixth grade students in real life research that exists in their own backyard.  My research experience is built around a local population of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), stewardship of coastal resources and broader ocean conservation lessons which I then teach to my students through the “Green Turtles of San Diego Bay” curriculum and classroom visits by scientists. Additionally, I created 4 age-appropriate power point presentations for scientists to be given during their outreach classroom visits. By publishing the curriculum online, creating turtle resource lists and other materials, and hosting local teacher workshops and/or presentations at local science teacher conferences, San Diego teachers in earth system science are also supported by this partnership with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center via Dr. Jeff Seminoff and Ms. Robin LeRoux.