Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

A multi-year study of a population of Painted Turtles Chrysemys picta commenced in 2010. This study has a two-fold purpose: introduce a group of mostly urban community college students to biological fieldwork and, gather data that is useful for the management of this turtle species. Turtles are trapped using hoop nets. Each turtle is measured, weighed, sexed, checked for external parasites and marked with a unique identifying letter code before being returned to its pond. Students develop animal handling skills; data collecting skills and skills necessary analyze the data. At the end of each collecting season, students create a poster as the culmination to their fieldwork. Students have access to previous years data sets so that the project and their presentations are cumulative and longitudinal. Students refine their math, writing and presentation skills as they develop and finally present their poster. As part of this study we have gathered data on parasites, changes in population structure over time, size and weight distributions, body condition and sex ratios. Many of the students have gone on to university studies in biology.