The Turtle Awareness Programs were a big hit!

As part of our project to “Elevate survival prospects for the critically endangered southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis) of Terengganu, Malaysia, through research, conservation, local community participation, public outreach and education,” we have proposed to conduct a Turtle Awareness Program in 15 local primary schools in the state of Terengganu.

We wanted to choose schools that are located along rivers in which we assumed river terrapins existed. Hence, after making some research and numerous phone calls to the State Department of Education, we have short-listed the following 15 schools:

1. S.K. Kuala Setiu
2. S.K. Penarik
3. S.K. Banggol
4. S.K. Kg. Fikri
5. S.K. Mangkok
6. S.K. Kuala Jengal
7. S.K. Pasir Raja
8. S.K. Delong
9. S.K. Serdang
10. S.K. Pasir Nering
11. S.K. Pasir Gajah
12. S.K. Seberang Tayor
13. S.K. Gong Nangka
14. S.K. Losong
15. S.K. Seberang Jerteh

Only Standard 5 students (11-year-olds) were involved in the program, except in schools with a small enrollment, where the Standard 6 students (12-year-olds) were included too. Each student received a home-made cloth bag to promote the use of a reusable bag; a copy of “Duta Kecil Penyu” (the Malay version of Little Turtle Messenger); an Activity Book that contains information about the Turtle Conservation Centre and what we do, information about sea turtles that nest in Malaysia and the critically-endangered terrapins in Terengganu; and a badge.

In most schools, the program–affectionally called Turtle Camp–begins with a brief introduction of TCC by the accompanying teacher of the school. After the brief introduction, we proceed by giving a talk about the four species of sea turtles that nest in Malaysia and the dangers they face, the two critically-endangered terrapins in the Setiu River and the threats that they face and how they, as students, can help save the turtles and terrapins. The first seven posters in the Educational Posters page are used during the talk that usually lasts between 45 minutes and an hour.

After the talk, the students are asked to the following questions:

1. How many of your fathers are fishermen?
2. How many of you have seen a terrapin?
3. How many of you have seen a terrapin egg?
4. How many of you have eaten a terrapin egg?
5. How many of you have seen a sea turtle?
6. How many of you have seen a sea turtle egg?
7. How many of you have eaten a sea turtle egg?

Then they take a voluntary oath to not eat turtle and terrapin eggs for the rest of their lives.

After that, we break the students up into smaller groups and tell the story of Maya and her journey to the world of the turtles underwater. After the story-telling session, the students are given a boxed drink and we take a 10 to 15 minutes break.

The Turtle Camp resumes after the break and the students are engaged in two activities concurrently, and whenever we are done with an activity, we switch to the other. The activities that were carried out included poster-drawing, playing the Terrapin Action Game in which students are required to act out scenarios written on flash cards, a crossword puzzle based on the book “Duta Kecil Penyu” and turtle origami, but only two of these activities were carried out in each school due to the time constraint. The Terrapin Action Game and turtle origami were the favourites among the students.

Each Turtle Camp ends with the prize-and-certificate-giving ceremony. Apart from that, TCC also donates a copy of “Duta Kecil Penyu” to each student in Standard 6 (if they were not involved in the camp) and a few copies of the book, both the English and Malay versions, to the school library.

A total of 505 students have participated in the Turtle Camps conducted in their respective schools. TCC has also donate a total of 36 copies of “Duta Kecil Penyu” and 30 copies of “Little Turtle Messenger” to the school libraries.

The Turtle Camps were definitely a big hit among the students. They were very excited about the camp and most of them were very enthusiastic about the talks and they get overly excited when it was activity time, and their favourite of all activities is none other than the Terrapin Action Game. They had tonnes of fun acting out the scenarios and laughing at each other :D

Prof. Chan and I would like to thank the Director of the State Department of Education, Head Masters and Head Mistresses of the schools, accompanying teachers, Meg and the following student volunteers for their help during the Turtle Camps:

1. Choo Oi Ling
2. Wong Siew Ling
3. Gan Yew Sun
4. Chark Ling Wei
5. Vicki Chew

These Turtle Camps are made possible through a research grant obtained from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.