Sea Turtle Conservation activities at Tarapathi School, Uppunda – Emil Tenhagen & Melina Schmidt, Germany
On 15th November, FSL-India’s Sea Turtle Conservation Team conducted a school session at Uppunda Tarapathi School on the importance of the sea turtle for marine health.
The school children from 4th-8th Standards seemed very curious and attentive about the topic. After the presentation, the children had to participate in a quiz competition, so that all the important information will be remembered. One could clearly see that the children had listened and learned. In the end, everyone had the chance to ask questions about the topic of sea turtle conservation and give their feedback to our presentation.
On the 20th of November, the FSL-India team visited the school for the drawing competition. The same children that took part in the presentation also participated in the drawing competition. The students were split up into groups of different ages. The task of the youngest, i.e. 4th and 5th Standards was to draw a sea turtle. The 6th Standard children had to draw the food chain. Students from the highest Standard, which was 7th and 8th, had to illustrate the threats to the sea turtle. Each child had to draw a picture for their topic. All of them concentrated very hard, were interested and they seemed happy while drawing.
9 days later, on 29th November, the FSL-India team went to the same school to conduct the clay competition. Every student got a piece of clay and their task was to form a sea turtle out of clay. They had 2 hours’ time to create their art. After everyone had finished, we collected all the sea turtle clay models so our volunteers Emil and Melina could select the winners for both competitions. It was not an easy decision for the volunteers because the drawings and the clay turtles were very good.
The FSL-India team also painted a sea turtle mural on the school wall. The topic was about sea turtle conservation and ocean clean up.
All of the activities which we conducted, were appreciated by the local community, school teachers and children. The volunteers enjoyed their work and they felt very happy about that.
At the end of the day’s activity, the children was received the rewards for the clay and drawing competitions. Also, the FSL-India volunteers were honoured and appreciated by the school teachers.
