Perth 2.0

Our second week in Perth brought us to Guildford Grammar School, Morley Senior High School, Maylands Peninsula Primary School, Swan View Senior High School, Mazenod Catholic College, Aquinas College, Jolimont Primary School, John XXIII College, and St. Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls.

After a succession of high school presentations, we switched gears on Tuesday with our largest school group so far – over 400 eager Year 1 to 6 students in two presentations. In order to answer as many questions as possible, we divided and conquered, splitting into smaller groups so that each class could ask a field team member everything they’ve ever wanted to know about sea turtle biology.

For our small Pre-primary and Year 1 class, we wrapped up the presentation with The Hatchling Game, beginning with the students in their eggs (pictured below) and then the crawl to “sea” – conveniently located across the room.

When we talk to older students about the sea turtle lifecycle and migrations, we get a lot of questions about where sea turtles go and how they know where they’re going. This is an important part of their life to understand in order to work towards effective management and conservation. What’s really exciting is that we don’t know where Gnaraloo’s turtles go, but the satellite tags from this season are starting to give us clues. One of our tagged females, Marloo, is way out at sea now. She may make it all the way to Indonesia!

The Turtle Team would like to thank the staff and students of our second round of Perth schools for inviting us into their classes!

– Kimberly Nielsen (GTCP 2015/16 Scientific Intern)