Citizen Science at Shore: The Zoo New England Turtles Program

“Well, we’ve partnered with Zoo New England for about a decade now,” says Science Teacher Erik Swanson, detailing the various impacts that the project he once inherited and now champions has on his students. “It builds empathy for other living things, explores the diversity of life in nature, and gives our students a great opportunity to participate in meaningful service work, specifically what we call citizen science.” For those who may not be familiar with the phrase, citizen science is a broad term encompassing the public’s collaboration with professional scientists, dealing in particular with data collection, reporting, and analysis, often over a lengthy period of time.

Since long before Swanson joined Shore seven years ago, our school has had a strong, or mutualistic relationship, as he might say, with Zoo New England, a Boston-area group focused on, among other things, the preservation of local wildlife. Until two years ago, every fall, Shore’s science program would receive a shipment of two Blanding’s Turtles from Zoo New England. Teachers and students were tasked with taking daily care of the endangered reptiles, including feeding, cleaning, and ensuring that the turtles maintain a healthy weight and growth pattern, with the idea that eventually the turtles would be released back into the wild in the spring. “Our turtles are only nine months old when we get them, and our goal each year is to get them up to the size of a three to four year old turtle by the time we release them,” explains Swanson, remarking that achieving such a feat in a mere six months’ time is no easy task.

One of the most impactful changes to the turtles program came two years ago, when Swanson received news from Zoo New England. Thanks in a large part to the work done at Shore and other area schools, Blanding’s Turtles are no longer endangered in Massachusetts! Once struggling, local populations have skyrocketed, and the turtles are not only surviving, but reproducing. Years of hard work and dedication at Shore has helped play a part in giving an entire species new hope, correcting the food chain, and completely changing the outlook for countless living creatures in our area. The Blanding’s Turtles were replaced with Wood Turtles, another local endangered species, in the hopes of regrowing their populations as well. The importance and impact of this work is not lost on Shore students, particularly a group of Grade 5 students called the ‘Turtle Team’, a rotating group of students who are responsible for feeding the turtles, cleaning their enclosure, and weighing the reptiles to ensure that they are happy and healthy. “I love our turtles!” says Lucy R., a Grade 5 Turtle Team Leader. “We have to make sure this little one eats his ‘Turtle Jell-O’”. Getting Shore students involved with hands-on citizen science fosters a love for the environment and the world around them, tying into our hallmark of outdoor education by teaching our students about the local ecosystem, giving it care, respect, and a little bit of Turtle Jell-O.