While discussing the problem of plastics in our world oceans, and then collecting way too much of it from our local beaches on field research trips this fall, my marine science students wanted to try harder to make a difference. I helped them discover the Billion Baby Turtles Campaign, which challenges students to raise money to help fund the rearing and release of baby sea turtles, giving them a better chance of surviving predators because they are a little bigger.
Once my students remembered all that plastic they had cleaned up, it didn’t take much for them to conclude that the money we could obtain from returning our plastic water bottles could actually have a triple benefit:
· keeping plastic out of our oceans and waste stream;
· helping to fund the raising of the baby sea turtles; and
· helping to educate friends and family (through social media) about the plight of sea turtles.
We tweeted, collected, recycled and donated money to the campaign, which ran for a little more than a month this fall and were able to help save 140 baby turtles. Additionally, the program organizers selected me to come help out this summer at their sea turtle rearing facility in Costa Rica. I can't wait to help out, see our efforts first hand and, especially, to share this amazing experience with my students.
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If you’d like to see our class photos, please visit our twitter page: @williamsocnwld.
If you'd like to visit the Billion Baby Turtle Campaign, which has fantastic educational materials, here's the link: http://www.seeturtles.org/billion-baby-turtles.
(Kimberly Williams is a member of the Smithtown Teachers Association.)