Grant: 24-010E
Project Title: Inspiring Sea Turtle Conservancy Action Ambassadors (STCAA)
Project Manager: Sarah Rhodes-Ondi
Organization: Sea Turtle Conservancy (Non-Profit Organization)
Grant Amount: $20,955.00
Completion Date: 2025-07-29
Summary: The Barrier Island Sanctuary Management and Education Center (BIC) has a responsibility to train the next generation of stewards of sea turtles and their critical nesting habitat. Sea Turtle Academy (STA) field study education programs have reached up to 3,300 students in both Brevard and Indian River Counties with support from the Sea Turtle Grants Program to provide bus scholarships and with funding for a Sea Turtle Educator. Most of these programs reach K-4 students. To broaden the age range of our audience, in 2019, STC also built the Sea Turtle TECH STEM Program to reach middle school and teen audiences during the summer. These programs show strong learning outcomes and pro-sea turtles attitude and conservation behavior shifts. However, the BIC still needs a teen program during the school year. This project will fund a Community Stewardship Coordinator and a college intern to support the STA education program, other sea turtle outreach programs, and the new STCAA program to reach students in the 11-18 year old age range during the school year. With a new Sea Turtle Conservancy Action Ambassador Program, based on the Community Action Projects for the Environment model produced by UF IFAS, we will train teens in the steps needed to succeed in collaborative projects that create systemic change. These projects may be citizen science, advocacy or stewardship oriented and will address threats to sea turtles and their habitats. These programs build the future stewards of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge by training the next generation in the skills needed to conserve sea turtles and their habitats.
Results: STC reached our goals for this project of inspiring the next generation of stewards of the Archie Carr Refuge through the Sea Turtle School Program, Sea Turtle School STEM Outreach Program and the new Sea Turtle Conservancy Action Ambassadors Program. The Sea Turtle School field study programs and the Sea Turtle School STEM Outreach programs are both going strong. During the 2024-2025 school year, Sea Turtle School reached 2,160 students and 319 students from five schools were recipients of the Title-1 bus scholarship which allows them to receive a free Sea Turtle School and Sea Turtle School STEM Outreach follow-up program. The STGP bus scholarship was awarded to University Park, Sherwood Elementary, Palm Bay Academy and Port Malabar Elementary. The fifth scholarship awarded through a small matching grant, funded Golfview Elementary. Our education team was able to reach 15% more students with the bus scholarships than we would have without the grant. STC evaluated the success of the Sea Turtle School field study trip and STEM Outreach program with a pre- and post-survey. The knowledge scores this year averaged a 15.4% knowledge gain across all scholarship schools. This is slightly lower than the usual 20% knowledge gain and our education team observed that many of the students came into the program scoring high on the knowledge gain questions so they did not have that much room for improvement. This year there was also more lag time in between the school study trip excursion and the outreach visits so retention may have been lower. Overall, STC achieved the project objectives for this grant by inspiring future stewards of the Archie Carr Refuge through the Sea Turtle School and Sea Turtle Conservancy Action Ambassadors. STC also expanded our Conservation Career Training Program to a year-round opportunity with this grant. We look forward to furthering our objectives during year two of this exciting project.