Natural Europe Educational Pathways

Sofoklis Sotiriou

Ellinogermaniki Agogi

Example of Educational Pathway

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (caretta caretta) scenario

Preparatory Phase

• The teacher is visiting the Natural Europe portal and collects information about the loggerhead sea turtles (worldwide distribution, path of their travel, Life history, creation of the nest, length of incubation, dependence of the gender of the hatchling to the temperature of the sand)

• The teacher plans a visit to the Cret@quarium and to the Natural History Museum of Crete. 4 loggerhead sea turtles leave there. Teacher contacts the museum staff and explores the different possibilities and the demonstration opportunities. The information is available on the Natural Europe Portal

• The teacher contacts “Archelon”, an organization that aims to the protection of loggerhead sea turtles and is located on Zakynthos Island. They are locating satellite transmitters on the turtles and they follow their route for a long period of time. The data are available on the Natural Europe Portal.

Teacher’s scenario for the educational visit and the different sources of information

Pre-Visit PhaseTeaching Phase 1: Question Eliciting Activities

• Provoke curiosity: The teacher tries to attract the students’ attention by presenting/showing to them appropriate material from the Natural Europe Portal.

• Define questions from current knowledge: Students are engaged by scientifically oriented questions imposed by the teacher.

Teaching Phase 2: Active Investigation

Propose preliminary explanations or hypotheses: Students propose some possible explanations to the questions that emerged from the previous activity. The teacher identifies possible misconceptions.

Plan and conduct simple investigation: Students give priority to evidence, which allows them to develop explanations that address scientifically oriented questions. The teacher facilitates the process.

Digital Content to facilitate the teaching process

Anatomy of the Loggerhead sea turtle (hint legs, paddle-like front arms, arrangement of scutes etc.)

Worldwide distribution of Loggerhead sea turtles and the path they travel

Migratory Route of Florida

Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Migratory routes: the red lines indicate some possible migratory paths that different

individuals may take

Atlantic Loggerhead Sea Turtle Recovery Plan The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

www.fws.gov

The ecology and life history of sea turtles

(creation of the nest, length of incubation, dependence of the gender of the hatchling to the temperature of the sand etc)

Annual Total Nest Counts for Loggerhead Sea Turtles on 27 Florida Index Beaches, 1989–2007

Taxonomy and classification (Loggerhead sea turtles in Greece)

Sea turtle orientation and navigation (magnetic field of Earth)

How do hatchling sea turtles find the sea?

How do turtles navigate to specific locations?

The Earth’s magnetic field

A recent study demonstrated that, if juvenile turtles are captured in their feeding sites and transported to a distant site, the turtles will attempt to swim in the direction of home even if placed into an arena where they cannot make progress toward the goal

(Avens and Lohmann, 2004).

Fragile ecosystems

A nesting turtle can be easily disorientated, finding its way back to the sea

Three hatchlings reach the sea

Sea turtles play key roles in two ecosystems that are critical to them as well as to humans—the oceans and beaches/dunes. If sea turtles were

to become extinct, the negative impact on beaches and the oceans would potentially be significant.

Wave detection by turtles(orientation to ocean waves)

How can turtles detect wave direction?

Hatchlings can evidently determine the direction of wave movement by monitoring the sequence of accelerations that occur as

waves move through the ocean. Such an ability is presumably useful for animals

that enter the ocean at night and must guide themselves seaward in almost total darkness.

Although sea turtles are the only animals known to detect wave direction in this way, a similar

ability may exist in other migratory ocean

animals such as fishes.

Visit PhaseTeaching Phase 3: Observation and experimentation • Gather evidence from observation: During the visit teacher

divides students in groups. Each group of students formulates and evaluates explanations from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions.

Teaching Phase 4: Discussion• Explanation based on evidence: The museum educator gives the

correct explanation for the specific research topic.• Consider other explanations: Each group of students evaluates its

explanations in light of alternative explanations, particularly those reflecting scientific understanding.

Satellite tracking of sea turtles (in Greece, Cyprus and the Mediterranean)

Projects of the Marine Turtle Research Grouphttp://www.seaturtle.org/mtrg/

ARCHELON’s turtles from Greece Loggerhead turtles from Cyprus 2006-08

Satellite tracking of Eleonora’s path (302 days of travel)

Travel path of asea turtle

A project of the Islameta Group, Dept. of Biology –

University of Pisa

Real image of the sea turtle Eleonora

How does a global

satellite-based location and

data collection system work?

Transmitter

Conservation of sea turtles – Threats of survival

  At Sea

•subsistence and commercial exploitation •fishing •pollution •boat collisions

  Nesting beaches

•sea defences •quarrying/mining •pollution •noise - general beach •Noise-airport disturbance •light•roads and illegal buildings •beach obstacles •food (eggs eaten by man) •sand compaction •drainage

Natural Threats Human induced impacts

Biotic

diseasepredation at sea predation at nesting

sites

Abiotic

flooding/stormsdriftwoodseaweed

Hatchlings predated by fox

This sea turtle has lost a flipper to a shark, and cannot dig a nest to lay its eggs.

Post-visit Phase

Communicate explanation: Each group of students produces a report with its findings, presents and justifies its proposed explanations to other groups and the teacher.

Consolidation - Exploration: The teacher is making questions and assigning tasks aiming at consolidation of the acquired knowledge. Students are discussing further issues.

Human induced impacts at sea

F I S H I N G

Fishing lines kill sea turtles (not hooks!)

It is estimated that at least 6000-8000 Mediterranean sea turtles are caught

by fishing activities every

year

(Demetropoulos) Radiograph D/V

of a juvenile green turtle that had been caught on a fishing line.

Note the distance

between the hook and swivel

associated

with the line.

Human induced impacts at sea

MARINE DEBRISSea basedLand based

Human induced impacts at sea

POLLUTION

BEACH ACTIVITIES ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS

Human induced impacts at sea

NOISE – AIRPORT DISTURBANCE

Times

Daily Mail

20-06-1995

Zakynthos airport location & runaway

Human induced impacts at sea

COASTAL ARMORING & SAND MINING

ZAKYNTHOS

K E F A L O N I A

Latest News & Research Update (endangerment, upcoming events, activities etc)

Chinese fishing boat arrested with 400 sea turtles on board

May 8, 2007 - KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA www.wildlifeextra.com

Fishing Technology Letting Turtles Off the Hookhttp://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/news/

index.cfm?uNewsID=144081

In the United States, the federal government worked with the commercial shrimp trawl industry to develop Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs).

Loggerhead escaping

through a TED

Entertainment (activities, tutorials, fun facts etc)

How to draw a loggerhead turtle (caretta caretta) in 8 easy steps!

Sea turtle paintings, art