When students from Lithgow visited wetlands near their primary school west of Sydney, they quickly picked up on a problem: there was nowhere for turtles.
“A bunch of students said there are no logs or rocks here, so where are they going to bask?” says Associate Professor Ricky Spencer from Western Sydney University. “I thought, that is a good point.”
The question was raised as part of a project in which year 5 and 6 students were attempting to understand their local environment and what it needed to thrive. The students had just learned that in spring, turtles have to bask – warm up on a rock or log – to create eggs.
The students are now conducting research and developing a proposal to present to their local council for the introduction of new basking areas, such as logs or human-made platforms.
“That is pretty powerful, for year 5 and year 6 students to actually know how to make change,” Spencer says. “We want kids to understand why conservation measures are important.”
Led by Western Sydney University, the Turtles in Schools program aims to encourage “an informed future generation that will take care of the environment”.
It is currently in a trial phase, with select New South Wales schools hosting turtles in classrooms and visiting nearby wetlands. By 2023, up to 10 turtle tanks will be installed in schools. By 2024, the program will be available to all year 5 and 6 classrooms across Australia.
While daily focus will be on hands-on interaction with turtles, Spencer says the program uses the animal as a symbol for change.
By guiding experiments on topics such as growth rates and behavioural observations, and introducing schools to activities in their local wetlands, Spencer says “this becomes a program for science and beyond” and could lead to activism “where students can actually carry their education forward to their day-to-day [life]”.
Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Sydney’s inner west has been investing in facilities including a turtle pond and hatchery for six years. They will be available for nearby schools involved in the Turtles in Schools program.
“We have built classes right into the environment,” the principal, Dr Paul Bergis, says.
Learning about turtles is spread across the school years. In year 3, students learn how to weigh and measure turtles. In kindergarten, children learn about animal homes. Year 5 art classes look at patterns in living things. Year 11 biology teaches about biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem, while year 7 biology teaches classification.
“We want to connect students to the real world, to develop values to look after the environment,” Bergis says. “Our students become familiar with understanding our relationship to the natural world. We are connected to it, we rely upon it. It isn’t something dispensable.”
Kane Durrant, who works in conservation at Turtle Rescues NSW, says turtle species are among the most endangered vertebrates on the planet. Over the past 4o years, Australia’s most common turtle species declined by 91%. “They really do need all the help they can get,” she says.
“Programs like this are important to educate this younger generation so they can take the message of conservation into their future.”
