Action | Student News
Bringing the Environment to Durham Elementary Schools
MEMs Volunteer Through the DEL Community Outreach
Program p.2
Hall concurs. “It’s inspiring to see so many busy students contributing their time and energy to the community. These students not only cultivate their own communication skills, they enrich and expand the learning opportunities for the next generation of environmental professionals.”
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After the fire drill, the children were eager to talk turtles. About a dozen of them raised their hands when asked if they’d seen live turtles before, so Sarah Borchelt and Colleen Kenney both introduced new turtle facts and solicited memories the children had of things they’d learned in the past. The class discussed sea turtles and box turtles: where box turtles got their name (it refers to their boxlike shell, into which they can retract their entire head and limbs), what types of water the different turtles are found in, what they like to eat, and some differences in anatomy, such as the shape of their feet or flippers.
“How long do turtles live?” Borchelt asked. After an initial suggestion of 500 years, the children’s guesses dropped sharply to four years and then varied wildly until Kenney and Borchelt revealed that the actual age span was 60 to 130 years. Despite their initial high guess, a “Wo-o-o-ow” issued from the crowd, signaling that the children were impressed.
“Who here can tell me what a food chain is?” asked Colleen. A little boy named Nicolo responded as if he’d been prepped ahead of time: “It’s about what turtles can eat and what they can’t eat. And what’s healthy for them and what’s not healthy for them.” “That is a great answer,” Kenney said. Later, she offered goodnaturedly, “Sometimes I think they already know everything and they’re just humoring us.”
But Nicolo had experience with sea turtles because his family had been involved in a turtle nesting program on Bald Head Island. Rest assured, the children were learning. “What do box turtles eat?” Kenney and Borchelt asked. The childrens’ answer: Carrots and bread. What would they eat if there were no people around? Crickets! Yes. Cobras! Probably not. What about sea turtles? Seaweed. Jellyfish. Good. Sea turtles have special salt-extracting glands that allow them to drink lots of sea water. Can we do that? Noooo! Can box turtles? Noooo!
Once everyone was up to date with turtle diets, it was time for a game. “Do you all want to play?” Borchelt asked. “YEAHHHH!” the kindergartners exclaimed. “Okay,” she continued. “The game we’re going to play will help explain food chains.” “YAY!”
In the first game, half of the children would play the parts of the box turtle food chain. The rest of the class would repeat the game with sea turtles, so that everyone would have a chance to play. Kenney and Borchelt helped the children form a circle and draped a picture of a box turtle around the neck of a boy named Jaquez. More pictures were handed out, representing worms, plants, water, soil, insects, spiders, and more turtles. Jaquez the turtle chose to eat a worm, so a string was stretched between the turtle and the worm. The worm decided to burrow in the soil, so the string was extended to the child playing soil, and eventually weaved back and forth across the circle, connecting the plants, insects, water, and spiders.
photo captions:1. Colleen Kenney; 2. Sarah Borchelt; 3. Forest View Elementary Students