to teachers and includes tailor-made lesson plans, in-class outreach presentations, and our new traveling trunks. Just this past year alone, we’ve been able to reach over 20,000 students with these programs. Students as far reaching as Hong Kong have participated in our lesson plans, and local students have joined in our outreach presentations. Here’s what one survey participant said:
“Outreach programs such as this benefit students in so many ways. As a teacher, I am able to connect these lessons across the curriculum in a way that engages students on a deep level. Students’ learning is positively affected when they are able to connect deeply to topics and outreach programs really get them involved. The fact that it’s free makes it easier for our administrators to “buy in” to nontraditional teaching and learning.”
Last October, we decided to launch a new and exciting educational opportunity for local teachers. Our “Traveling Turtles” program consists of an all-inclusive
trunk, containing all the education material teachers would need to carry out four conservation-based lesson plans. The trunks include skull replicas of Florida’s sea turtles, biological tools for measuring, individualized model turtles, and a ready-made lesson binder. Curricula for this program takes students on a journey through sea turtle anatomy, nesting behaviors, population sampling and more!
Students can step into the role of biologist and “work up” their own turtle as they go through a mock data sheet. The program is designed to show