An Ohio University professor is working with an environmental organization and students in Maryland to develop environmental awareness and improve the survival rate of diamondback terrapin turtles - Maryland's state reptile.
Associate Professor Willem Roosenburg helps to coordinate the Terrapin Connection program, which takes hatchling terrapins from Chesapeake Bay and places them in classrooms in Maryland to be raised.
Roosenburg works with the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center, which promotes environmental education in Maryland, to coordinate the program.
Dr. Roosenburg is widely recognized as the country's expert on terrapins
said Will Williams, an outdoor educator at Arlington Echo. Aligning ourselves with him through this program really brings up our credibility.
The classes, which range from second-grade to high-school levels, receive the turtles at the beginning of the school year and raise them for nine months. Roosenburg travels to Maryland in May to perform sex-determination tests and implant the turtles with a tracking device to identify them if they are recaptured before the students travel to Chesapeake Bay to return the turtles to the wild.
The data from the Terrapin Connection program contributes to Roosenburg's research, which he has been conducting for 20 years. He focuses on the life histories and population dynamics of the terrapins, and his tests cannot be completed on hatchlings. During nine months of classroom care, the terrapins grow as much as they would in three to five years in the wild, Roosenburg said.
The students get to see the turtles go from the size of a quarter to the size of a Big Mac said Stephen Barry, coordinator of environmental education at Arlington Echo.
Allowing the turtles to grow in a protected environment improves their chance of survival and helps replenish their population - a process called head starting.
Arlington Echo also hopes to create environmental awareness in Maryland's students.
The terrapin is essentially the hook for their project Roosenberg said. It's what captivates the kids. They see a turtle
get excited and take care of it; and at the same time
they get exposed to a complete curriculum that focuses on environmental education and issues in Chesapeake Bay.
Teachers incorporate the terrapins into their curriculum in various ways. Many of them have students practice science and math skills by weighing and measuring the turtles, while some have students write stories and songs about the turtles.
It's much more than having a pet turtle in the classroom
Williams said. They really use the terrapins as a window into learning about the Chesapeake Bay area.
The Terrapin Connection program's environmental aspect provides students with a cause, said Steve Fletcher, who teaches eighth-grade social studies at Marley Middle School in Glen Burnie, Md.
Thanks to programs like the Terrapin Connections
we no longer have kids wondering what they should care about
he said.
The program is effective because of the hands-on aspect, students say.
It's not just boring like reading about it
said Mary Brunal, an eighth-grade student who works with Fletcher's terrapins. I actually get to experience it and see what it's like taking care of the turtles.
Although teachers emphasize that the terrapins are not pets and will not be a permanent addition to classrooms, some students find it difficult to give them up, said Debbie Hendricks, who teaches third grade at Arnold Elementary School in Arnold, Md.
It's so hard to let them go. When I taught fifth grade
there were very sad faces; but last year when I moved down to third
we had sobs
