Turtley awesome day at Baringa Primary State School

Turtle conservation went digital this year (2022) thanks to the incredible work of Year 4 students from Baringa Primary State School.

Working with Sunshine Coast Council and TurtleCare Sunshine Coast on their education event - Turtley Awesome - the students learnt about threats to the turtles and what they could do to solve the issue of the declining turtle population.

Head of Curriculum at Baringa State Primary School Jo Klein said through the STEM unit, students designed and coded an augmented reality merge cube based on infographics to teach others about the threats to the turtles.

"Sea Turtles are experiencing a range of human induced impacts that are threatening their survival," Mrs Klein said.

"To develop awareness of these threats, students participated in a range of activities.

"One activity required students to analyse plastic rubbish that was found in their local area during a beach clean up day.

“The beach clean up inspired students to want to further build community awareness around the need to reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose plastic in order to prevent it from entering our water ways.

"Through an augmented reality sandbox, students also explored the effect of erosion on our coast line and its impact on our declining turtle population.

"This was supported through hands on investigations provided by the Sunshine Coast Council’s Coastal Discovery Van."

Sunshine Coast Council’s TurtleCare Conservation Officer Kate Hofmeister said the Turtley Awesome day was so important to raise awareness amongst our local residents.

"The kids are teaching them on what they can do to make sure we have turtles remain on our beaches for many, many generations to come."