GATEways to Teacher Education A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators
The Domino Effect: Saving Sea Turtles by Teaching Teachers about Sea Turtle Katie Higgins, Georgia Sea Turtle Center, and Conservation Patricia Norris Parsons, Armstrong State University Ocean literacy is defined as “an understanding of the ocean’s influence on you – and your influence on the ocean,” (National Geographic Society, 2006). The principals guiding the Ocean Literacy Network (OLN) were designed to infuse the marine sciences into the US National Science Educational Standards, which upon their original publication included almost no mention of the marine environment or the importance of oceans and other aquatic habitats (Cava, Schoedinger, Strang, & Tuddenham, 2005; Strang & Tran, 2010). Participating entities in the OLN include the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA), National Geographic Society, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and American Zoological Association. The efforts of the OLN collaboration have been instrumental in moving K-12 education curriculum in the United States toward one of integration among formal and informal educators and marine scientists in an attempt to heighten awareness of a myriad of marine conservation issues. The recent publication of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (2015) has created a basis for integrating OLN goals into the classroom and fostering collaborations among those who teach science and those who practice science. Scientific inquiry can be defined as the asking of an initial question and the process of investigation to learn the answer. It is a conceptual bridge between informal and formal educators. Inquiry is a key element to the NGSS and specifically referenced as an integral part of practices within the threedimensional framework of the standards, which include practices, core ideas and crosscutting concepts (NGSS, 2015). However, while the teaching of scientific inquiry is an element of the
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programs offered through marine education institutions such as the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC), the very nature of inquiry requires more sustained contact with students than that achieved during a typical field trip experience (Bitgood, 1989). Therefore, the weight of inquiry lies on teachers and teacher-scientist collaborations to truly bring the power of science into the classroom and to get the students out of the classroom and into the world of scientific discovery. One potentially powerful means to this end is the exposure of science teachers to career scientists and field research, giving them first-hand experience and thereby empowering them to teach what they know rather than theory gleaned from textbooks or other media sources (Ivey, Colston, & Thomas, 2015). The GSTC was established in 2007 with the mission to fill several roles in the conservation of the loggerhead and other sea turtle species locally on Jekyll Island, statewide in Georgia, and beyond. The GSTC’s mission states, “Through sea turtle rehabilitation, research and educational programs, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff work to increase awareness of habitat and wildlife conservation challenges, promote responsibility for ecosystem health and empower individuals to act locally, regionally, and globally to protect the environment” (GSTC, 2007). The bolded words are the authors’ addition, highlighting the areas in need of further evaluation, some of which were initiated by this study. In order to meet the challenges created by increased development on Jekyll Island, the need for a more stringent assessment of this mission is paramount to meeting the challenges of more human interaction with the island’s nesting sea turtle population.
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