Natural Europe Educational Pathways
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Transcript of Natural Europe Educational Pathways
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