HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK

Transcription

1 HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK 2555 Sea Island Parkway Hunting Island,SC (843) Hunting Island We invite you and your students to visit our park and participate in an educational program. This popular state park, located near historic Beaufort, is a 5,000-acre secluded barrier island of semitropical beauty. As the name implies, the island was once used for hunting deer, raccoon, waterfowl and other small game. As a state park, the island serves as a preserve for its abundant wildlife. With more than four miles of beach, a maritime forest and extensive saltwater marsh, the island is also a retreat for people who love a natural coastal environment. An historic 19th-century lighthouse is Hunting Island s most popular landmark, where guests can climb to the top for a spectacular view of the coastline. The lighthouse and its complex are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Directions From I-95: Take Hwy 21 E. toward Beaufort. Drive 42 mi. Hwy 21 ends at the park. Reservations and Program Information For reservations, contact: Megan Stegmeir Park Interpreter Phone: (843) mstegmeir@scprt.com 71

2 Hunting Island State Park: Pre-Site Hunting Island: Pre-Site Content Area: Science Grade Level: 3 Time to Complete: 1 class period Title of Program: Loggerhead Lane South Carolina State Standards Addressed Use tools (meter sticks) safely, accurately and appropriately when gathering specific data Infer meaning from data communicated in tables Explain why similar investigations might produce different results Recall the characteristics of an organism s habitat that allow the organism to survive there Explain how changes in the habitats of plants and animals affect their survival. 3) 4) 5) meeting these needs? How are loggerhead sea turtles and their habitats managed and protected? What are some things that affect the long-term survival of loggerhead sea turtles? Identify four (4) external body parts of a loggerhead sea turtle. Procedures Read the book, Turtle Summer - A Journal for My Daughter, to the class and discuss with them what their lives would be like if they were sea turtles that lived in the ocean. Have them compare and contrast life on land with life in the water. Print out the humorous sea turtle images on and have the students choose one to color and label the parts (see vocabulary). Students can share information about their sea turtle species. Materials and Resources Turtle Summer - A Journal for My Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe. Supplied by park. Website 72 Lesson Description Students will read a book as a group. This story will introduce them to the nesting cycle, habitat needs, and challenges faced by loggerhead sea turtles. Then students will use a website to become familiar with sea turtles and their external body parts. Focus Questions for Students 1) 2) What are the basic needs of the nesting loggerhead sea turtle? Why are barrier islands important in Vocabulary Carapace - the upper shell (top) of a turtle. Hatchling - a term used for a baby turtle. Plastron - the lower shell (bottom) of a turtle. Scutes - hard scales that cover the carapace. Flippers- term used for the legs of a sea turtle which make them great swimmers.

3 Culminating Assessment See post-site activity. Answers and Discussion Points to Focus Questions Clean water, food, protection from human activities (boat strikes, nets and ropes in the water from fishing, shrimping and crabbing, and pollution), safe and suitable nesting habitat. Barrier islands are ideal nesting habitats for sea turtles. They provide sand dune habitat where sea turtles lay eggs, plentiful food supply nearby, and easy access to the ocean for emerging hatchlings. Sand dunes and associated plants are protected by state and federal laws. During nesting season, patrols (professionals and volunteers) monitor beaches for sea turtle nests, protect nests from easy predation by screening them, and conduct inventories of hatched nests to determine how many eggs hatched and to check for any live hatchlings that are still in the nests. Loss of habitat due to natural erosion and beach-side development, pollution, poaching of turtles and eggs, nest predation, and adult mortality from fishing, crabbing, shrimping activities, and boat-strikes, are some of the threats to loggerhead sea turtles. Keeping beach front lights off of the beach during nesting season, use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) by shrimp boats, nest management, slow boat speed during turtle season, clean up crabbing and fishing debris, and protecting sand dune habitat. Hunting Island: Pre-Site 73

4 Hunting Island State Park: On-Site Hunting Island: On-Site 74 Content Area: Science Grade Level: 3 Time to Complete: 2 hours Title of Program: Loggerhead Lane South Carolina State Standards Addressed Use tools (meter sticks) safely, accurately and appropriately when gathering specific data Infer meaning from data communicated in tables Explain why similar investigations might produce different results Recall the characteristics of an organism s habitat that allow the organism to survive there Explain how changes in the habitats of plants and animals affect their survival. Lesson Description Hunting Island State Park is one of the premier nesting areas for the threatened loggerhead sea turtle. This makes the park an excellent location to study our state reptile. During this hands-on field study, students will: Investigate ideal nesting habitat for the loggerhead sea turtle. Demonstrate how loggerhead turtle nesting areas are managed. Determine how threats, both human and natural, can affect their long-term survival. Upon completion of this field trip, students will understand the threats to loggerhead sea turtles and the importance of protecting this valuable reptile. Focus Questions for Students 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) What are the basic needs of the nesting loggerhead sea turtle? Why are barrier islands important in meeting these needs? How are loggerhead sea turtles and their habitats monitored and managed? What factors have caused the loggerhead sea turtle to become threatened? What are some human activities that influence the survival of the loggerhead sea turtle? Materials/Equipment/Resources The following materials and equipment will be provided by the park in order to conduct the program: Loggerhead sea turtle skull and carapace. Sea shells for digging turtle nests. Clip Boards/pencils. Meter sticks for measuring width and depth of nests. Stakes, hammer and flagging tape for marking nests. Mesh laundry bags to hold Ping-Pong balls. Ping-Pong balls to represent turtle eggs. Plastic turtles to represent live/dead hatchlings in nests. Dry erase board/markers for recording data from inventories (Live/Dead, Hatched/Un-hatched turtles). CD with Sea Turtle Jeopardy! game with questions and answers for post-site assessment.

5 Procedures Your group will be met by park staff at the lighthouse. Restroom facilities are located here as well as a covered shelter and picnic tables for eating lunch. Students will be broken into groups to participate in rangerguided activities with the assistance of teachers and chaperones. Activity One What makes a reptile a reptile? (15 minutes) Interpreter-led discussion about the unique characteristics of reptiles and the life cycle of the loggerhead sea turtle. Discussion Points: Reptiles are exo-thermic (coldblooded) meaning that they cannot regulate their body temperatures themselves, they depend on outside sources like the sun. Reptiles have a body covering of scales. These scales help protect the body as well as keep internal moisture within the body. Most reptiles lay eggs. Most common reptiles: turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodilians How do reptiles differ from birds? Mammals? Fish? Loggerhead sea turtle: the state reptile of South Carolina. Nests on SC beaches from mid-may until mid-august. Females lay 4-7 nests each nesting season, with a normal range of eggs in each nest. Loggerheads do not nest every year, but usually every 2-3 years. Eggs incubate for days at which point the young will emerge from the nest and make their way to the ocean. The young typically emerge at night when there are fewer predators and the sand is cooler. If they emerge during the heat of the day, they could possibly cook right on the beach! Once the young have made it to the water, they swim to a vast expanse of seaweed called the Sargasso Sea. This is a large area with a lot of floating sargasso weed where the little turtles find shelter and food. They may stay here for several years until they have grown some. The turtles will return to the same general area (if not the same beach) when they reach sexual maturity somewhere between years of age, though only the females will leave the water to lay their eggs. The males will not come back to shore. Mating occurs in the water and the mothers will crawl ashore to nest. They look for an area above the spring high tide line, yet close enough to the water so the babies have a chance of making it when they hatch. Activity Two Habitat Hunt: (45 minutes) Interpreter-led beach walk exploring different parts of the beach, sand dune habitats and public beach access areas in search of the ideal nesting area for a loggerhead sea turtle. The students will be asked whether each place would make a good nesting spot, and why or why not? Groups will then use sea shells to dig nests in different areas of the beach and meter sticks to measure predetermined depths and widths of nests (Group 1-65cm deep x 35cm wide; Group 2-58cm x 37cm; Group 3-60cm x 40cm: Group 4: 55cm x 42cm). Mesh bags containing eggs and turtles will be placed in each nest then covered up with sand and marked with stakes and flagging tape. Students will be told why it is important to mark where the nests are. (To protect them from people and predators and to know where they are so they can be monitored.) Hunting Island: On-Site 75

6 Activity Three Nest Inventory (45 minutes) Students will inventory a nest to determine how many hatchlings successfully hatched. They will identify the number of hatched and unhatched eggs, and live and dead hatchlings in the nests. Students will inventory the nest of a group other than the one they made to collect data. Data from their inventories will be recorded on a dry erase board for comparison. Hunting Island: On-Site Wrap-up and discussion of inventory results. (15 minutes) Culminating Assessment See post-site activity. 76

7 Hunting Island State Park: Post-Site Content Area: Science Grade Level: 3 Time to Complete: 1 class period Title of Program: Loggerhead Lane South Carolina State Standards Addressed Use tools (meter sticks) safely, accurately and appropriately when gathering specific data Infer meaning from data communicated in tables Explain why similar investigations might produce different results Recall the characteristics of an organism s habitat that allow the organism to survive there Explain how changes in the habitats of plants and animals affect their survival. Lesson Description Students will use the data from their on-site activities to create graphs to display their findings. Focus Questions for Students What are the basic needs of the nesting loggerhead sea turtle? Why are barrier islands important in meeting these needs? How are loggerhead sea turtles and their habitats monitored and managed? What factors have caused the loggerhead sea turtle to become threatened? What are some human activities that influence the survival of the loggerhead sea turtle? Culminating Assessment Post-site Activities teacher can do all or part of the following activities to assess the program. Activity One - Comparing Data Using the data collected from their trip to Hunting Island, have students draw a table or line graph displaying the numbers of hatched, unhatched, live and dead hatchling sea turtles they discovered during their field study. Have students compare actual data from Hunting Island turtle patrols from the previous 2 years (provided by the park) to the data they collected on their visit and graph the data on a bar graph. Go to: to view the sea turtle nest database for the state of SC and compare data from Hunting Island with other beaches. Activity Two - Loggerhead School Display Have the students make a display for the school that shows ways to help protect the loggerhead sea turtle. Activity Three - Sea Turtle Jeopardy! Play Sea Turtle Jeopardy! (CD provided by park) with the students to review the lesson. Hunting Island: Post-Site 77