Vision

Seven out of eight species of Ontario turtles are now at risk. Our class envisions a Canada where caring people have the legal and financial tools to enable turtle populations to become strong and stable, once again.

Action

Part 1 of our class’ turtle project involved researching Ontario turtles and Skyping with staff at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (KTTC), in Peterborough, Ontario. We discovered that Snapping Turtles are now considered “at risk,” by both the provincial and federal governments, but provincial legislation has not been updated to reflect this reality. Our class wrote persuasive letters to our local MPP, urging him to ask the Ontario government to put a stop to the hunting of at-risk Snapping Turtles for food.

Part 2 of our project was a class fund-raiser in support of the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, a charity that rehabilitates and releases back into the wild over 1,000 injured and hatchling turtles per year, conducts field research into risk factors affecting turtles, makes recommendations regarding safeguards such as eco-passages, and delivers electronic, off-site and on-site educational programming. The name of our fund-raiser was “Market Day 4 Turtles” Students in our class donated gently used toys and books that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, the class divided the items into four categories, or “stores.” Students then arranged themselves into teams of six or seven, created signs for the stores, and priced the items they would be selling. When Market Day arrived, teams set up their stores and students took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods. Then each store tallied up the money they collected and students graphed the results. $220.20 was raised via Market Day. Go turtles!

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