Turtle Navigation for Nesting

How Do Marine Turtles Return to the Same Beach to Lay Their Eggs?
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/turtle-navigation.html#cr
-(Shocking Nature News)-

Marine turtles almost always return to the same beach to lay their eggs. The egg-laying sites are often far from the feeding areas and the females cross several hundred kilometres of ocean with no visual landmarks. How do they manage to return to the same spot? A new study shows that the marine turtles use a relatively simple navigation system involving the earth’s magnetic field, and this allows them to return to the same egg-laying site without having the ability to correct for the deflection of ocean currents. This work, published in Current Biology and Marine Ecology Progress Series, should allow better conservation strategies for this endangered species. Every 4 years, on average, Indian Ocean green turtles (Chelonia mydas) travel hundreds of kilometres to specific egg-laying areas, where they will lay 4 to 6 successive clutches. To better understand the navigation process and the sensory channels involved in this long-distance oceanic travel, the researchers have conducted a multidisciplinary study, involving biology and physical oceanography, in two series of experiments. In the Mozambique Channel, between the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, on the beaches of the French Islands of Europa and Mayotte, they caught turtles at the beginning of their egg-laying cycle, so that the animals were strongly impelled to return to this area to complete their cycle.

After having Argos transmitters fitted to their shells in order to satellite track their return journey to the beach, the animals were released in open sea, several hundred kilometres from the egg-laying site.

The first experiment was to study the navigation system of the marine turtles and discover how they detect the ocean currents: are the turtles’ movements controlled by the currents or can they use them to their benefit? The study has shown that the marine turtles’ navigation system allows them to maintain their course towards the egg-laying site wherever they find themselves. It is almost as if they were equipped with a compass pointing towards the beach in question. So they can correct any deflection they are subject to: transport by boat, ocean currents… But, unlike human navigators, they are not able to correct for ocean drift in plotting their course. So the movements recorded by the satellite are a combination of deliberate action by the turtles and the effect of currents. So it appears that the turtles’ navigation system is relatively simple and may cause them to be wander at sea for long periods during adverse ocean conditions. One turtle released 250 km from its egg-laying site on Europa travelled more than 3 500 km in two months before returning there!

Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas)

In the second experiment, the researchers have studied the effect of the earth’s magnetic field on the turtles’ navigation system. They have shown, for the first time in natura, that marine turtles use the magnetic field of the earth to orientate themselves. When this field is disturbed by placing a powerful magnet on their heads, turtle navigation is not as good. But the fact that they can still return to their original egg-laying site shows that the geomagnetic field is not the only information source that they use. Researchers think the turtles may also use their sense of smell like certain sea birds or homing pigeons. This hypothesis remains to be proven…

This work should improve conservation strategies for marine turtles, an endangered, officially protected species, by providing a better understanding of how they manage these long migrations between egg-laying and feeding areas.

The study was conducted by Simon Benhamou of the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at Montpellier, France, together with other groups (CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, CEDTM2, University of Pisa).

Picture taken from www.seaturtlenet.com and http://anwo.com

New Category Added

New Category Added

-(Personal Notes)-

Hello guys, how are you? Just want you to know that after a day of think, I decided to expand this blog, so it become better... I mean that I feel that nature games, experiments were not enough to support education and create awareness for people...

So I will create and modified another facilitation technique category beside nature game and experiments and all of those activities will be packed into "facilitation technique" label, and its sub.

In this part, you can read about how to do introduction-icebreaking, energizing and forming a group, enhancing group dynamics, improve listening and observation, analysis, evaluation, semi-structured interviewing, diagramming and evaluation, ranking and scoring.

Well, I still need more time to organize this blog so it can be read easily. Some of blog features didn't support the appearance I want, so it looks that I must find alternative: find another template, add better link to find writings, etc.

Hope all of this item can support you to increase more awareness in social, environment, economic, and spiritual-humanity related movements. Good luck ^_^ !

Warm regards,
Indra N Hatasura

Estafet Story Telling

Estafet Story Telling

-(Nature Game, Language Game)-

This is a game we can use to learn about language, especially when we try to encourage children to tell a story. I give some modification so we also can use it to learn about environment a little. Thanks for Mr Paul, my English teacher from TBI-The British Institute, Bogor who show this method to me in his English Club yesterday.

Needs

Paper and questions

First , give instructions to children to write down these questions into one page of paper. I think 10 questions is enough plus you always can modify these questions into another topic...

Mention that everybody can answer the questions freely.

QUESTIONS

1. Who is this man (name, work?)
...............................
2. If he likes to grow / plant something, what kind of vegetables he likes to grow?
.......................
3. From which country did these vegetables come originally?
...............................
4. Which seasoning is better to make this vegetable taste better?
...............................
5. What animal eat this vegetable?
...............................
6. Mention the use of this vegetable for human health?
...............................
7. Today scientist found new varian of this vegetable that looks interesting. Why this varian is interesting for them?
................................
8. The man tries to cultivate the vegetable. Is he failed or not - why?
...............................
9. Scientist said something related with this vegetable. What did they say?
...........................
10. Is the vegetable available in the market now? Why?
...............................

This is a fun game. My teacher used it and everybody laugh in the class. Although in Indonesia we use this game to practice English (story telling) but I hope the fun atmosphere also work when we use it to learn environment. And the bonus is that we can learn English and environment in one packet.

The idea is very simple. Write all this questions in one page. Give some space so they can write the answer below each question.

First kid answer question number one, than they fold the paper so number one question and answer is hidden. Then the kid assists / gives the paper into the one who sit beside him/her. The second kid answer the number two question and fold the paper again. He / she give it to the other and so on.

Basically it likes make a story composed many sources (by answering the questions) - without know every previous answer. So yes, the story sometimes become silly and funny.

Read the paper after all question has been answered. To learn about conversation, it will train the kids to make a story by read and relate all answer into one interesting story (try to make a good story with all this mess ^_^ ).

To relate it into environment issues, tell children that after all this activity to find the right story about these vegetables (the vegetables species in question number two is as main idea, and they may check all answer (right or wrong) by using internet and other sources. Don't worry - maybe they cannot find all answer but by doing this they will know about species diversity and adaptation...

Searching activity can be used as homework if you have limited time to learn.

Oil Spill "Devastation"

Oily Chick

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07

-(Shocking Nature News)-

Photograph courtesy Gerrit Vyn, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill covers the breast of a royal tern chick recently hatched on Raccoon Island in a picture taken last week. Royal terns leave their nests within a day of hatching, which means the young birds may quickly encounter oil that's been washed ashore.

Part of Louisiana's Terrebonne Parish, the island is a protected sanctuary for breeding seabirds, including royal terns, sandwich terns, and brown pelicans.

(See also: "Gulf Oil Cleanup Crews Trample Nesting Birds.")

Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell bird lab, told the Associated Press that the Gulf oil spill is "more insidious" than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, "because it is literally happening in waves, and it's happening over and over again as the birds are moving around."

Nature Disaster 1: Flood and Land Slide

Nature Disaster 1: Flood and Land Slide
-(Nature Experiments)-

Important note for Indonesian teachers: nature disaster= disaster happened in our environment, related with nature activity and + or human/other activity (not only by nature). The means of "nature" just to show that it happened in our environment, but not to strictly limit the cause only by nature / non human factors.

Hello again teachers. This time I try to build a module that fix into nature disaster topics. For the first module I took "flood" topic cos it happened now in my town Bogor. Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia also strike by the flood in 2006 and it really bad.

In junior high school -in Indonesia the West Java government also tell the school to prepare for the topics of nature disaster in environment education curriculum, for one semester in first grade. So, I hope this writing can help teachers to make their own module, as a part to understand some ecological system in our environment.

To talk about nature disaster: flood and land slide, I made two separate experiments to show kids the process of flood. I believe lecturing is not enough and great discussion only occurred when the participants feel/see/touch what really happened. I suggest that we also can use movie clip as a media when this experiments cannot be done.

Needs
1. A model that can describe land, made from sand / soil/other matter. Different type of soil is needed if we want to explain more about relation between soil type and porosity.
2. Water and shower
3. A model like number 1, but this time use and mix the model with cotton or water absorber matter (use tissue paper for instance)

Then start the experiments. You can shower water into the model to see what happened. A "bald" land (made from only sand / soil will be vulnerable for a slide.

For the second model (that also contain water absorber matter in the surface), the water will run more slowly. If we use more cotton and cover it into all surfaces, the matter will absorb most of the water.

A guide for teachers:
1. A flood happened when the water intensity (from the rain) is much bigger than the land capacity to absorb the water. Land always need time to absorb water, regarding its porosity so when there are no tree, humus, or a lake that slow or absorb water, a big part of water will run directly into the river / low land and cause a flood. Sometimes it take not only water but also log, garbage and make it more even dangerous specially in populated /low land area.
2. Land slide is also related with soil porosity and water. Some plants can protect the land by holding soil with their root. Their leaves and branch also protect the land from direct intensity of the sun and rain, and keep the land humidity.
3. Flood and land slide also related with human activity. Mention that landfill, mining, deforestation, and other development can effect land stabilization and capacity

Ask children about the flood:
- According to them, why flood and land slide happened in their first experiment? Is the "disaster" intensity decrease when they use water absorber matter in their second experiments?
- Ask them (or you tell them) if there any place near your environment that have flood and land slide problem. Encourage them to tell the story about what happened and why this was happened?
- In our environment, what kind of water absorber / reservoir is present around us? (hope they can tell us about forest, lake, garden, etc). Don't forget to ask them is the quality and quantity of this place is enough to protect our place from flood and land slide?
- What can we do to protect our area from flood and land slide? Give them clue that a small action is also benefit the environment, while they also can tell about their plan when they already a grown up... ^_^



Picture taken from google images

World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered

 

World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered
-(Shocking Nature News)-
http://www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.

In replicated tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of Red Savina, which measured a mere 577,000.

Dr. Paul Bosland, Director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences collected seeds of Bhut Jolokia while visiting India in 2001.

Bosland grew Bhut Jolokia plants under insect-proof cages for three years to produce enough seed to complete the required field tests.

"The name Bhut Jolokia translates as 'ghost chile,'" Bosland said, "I think it's because the chile is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it!"

Bosland added that the intense heat concentration of Bhut Jolokia could have significant impact on the food industry as an economical seasoning in packaged foods.

Picture taken from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071026162420.htm

Sorry for All Late Update

Sorry for All Late Update
-(Personal Notes)-

Hi again everybody... this time I ask for your apologize for not updating the game, the experiment periodically.

For about almost 6 months I try to build a teacher community "Environmental Education Community for Teachers" or something sounds like that in my town: Bogor - Indonesia.

We did some basic training to strengthen the community; 1 modules per-month, and as the result we now have 2 groups of environmentally friendly teachers ^^ : one in the town and the other is in the regency area. All of this activity plus a kind of change in my NGO management distrained my attention.

hopefully, in this month I can build a new module for our blog again. I know it's a little bit disappointing to see that no new game created for almost 5 month. Really sorry :(

Thank you for your support... Keep up the spirit!