Grant: 24-029E
Project Title: Sea Turtle Biologist-in-Training: Program Expansion
Project Manager: Celeste McWilliams
Organization: Coastal Connections, Inc. (Non-Profit Organization)
Grant Amount: $5,515.00
Completion Date: 2025-06-17
Summary: Project Summary: Coastal Connections, Inc. (CCinc) will expand its "Sea Turtle Biologist-in-Training", its most requested educational program, to increase both program capacity and hands-on participation. This program is targeted towards second grade students aligning with 12+ Florida testing standards and complementing in-class instruction with experiential activities. The objectives of the program are to give students a basic sea turtle education, help students recognize and eliminate negative human impacts on sea turtles, and inspire a new generation of biologists. The first lesson will consist of students learning about basic sea turtle biology, local nesting species, life cycle, survival rates, and human impacts, utilizing replica skulls and biofacts. The second lesson will introduce CCinc's mock nest evaluation kits, each with varying nest contents to model various hatchling success scenarios typically found in real-life nest evaluations. Lesson two gives students an inside look into work that involves real-world research while teaching critical skills from math to writing to public speaking. Student learning gains will be assessed via pre- and post-tests. Requested funds will be used to purchase materials for and build additional mock evaluation kits and cover associated program costs for one year.
Results: During the second six months of this project, the “Sea Turtle Biologist-in-Training” program was hosted on nine dates and served a total of 178 students: 13 homeschool students, 78 Title 1 elementary school students, and 86 non-Title 1 elementary school students. All programs hosted at the Title 1 elementary schools were specifically requested by the School District of Indian River County for inclusion in their “Moonshot Moment” literacy initiative. Three programs were scheduled on weekdays for homeschooled students, one requested by a local homeschool association and the other two as “drop-in” programs for any students to attend. All three programs had pre-registrations of over 15 students per program, yet attendance was very low at all three. (The homeschool association-requested program saw 6 attendees, one drop-in program had 7 attendees, and the last drop-in program had no attendees.) To better make the programs available to people of any economic status, they were offered at no charge to attendees, which most likely accounts for the many “no-shows”. In the future, CCinc may request a minimal deposit to reserve a space for drop-in program attendees; an offer to refund this deposit would be made if registrants attend the program. To give a more complete picture of pre- and post-test scores, the chart below includes data on pre- and post-tests administered to students for the entire 12-month reporting period, some of which were reported in the previously-submitted six-month report. During the 12-month grant reporting period, pre- and post-tests were administered to 371 of the 406 student attendees. This project was successfully presented at the Florida Marine Science Educators Association annual conference. Fourteen educators joined the session, during which they were given a basic introduction to sea turtles and then performed a mock evaluation on model nest kits, sharing their results with each other. The Sea Turtle License Plate grant used to fund the materials was promoted to attendees verbally as well as via language on forms and nest kit labels. Multiple educators requested follow-up discussions to possibly incorporate the program into their student lessons.