Teaching with turtles: the NSW program turning school students into conservationists

A turtle at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Sydney’s inner west. The Turtles in Schools program aims to teach students about wildlife conservation. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

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.”