the turtle project

The Turtle Project

The turtle was an 8-week experiment carried out by children aged 5-6 and their teachers from Mexico City’s Eton college. During this time, the children participated in a variety of events such as classroom learning about turtles, field trips where they studied turtles, and offering their personal views about a variety of topics such as what threats turtles face and how people can improve (Katz & Chard 11). Before the children were offered responses or interpretations to different questions about turtles during the project, the teachers solicited their feedback. The answers by the children offered insight into how they think and therefore, enabling an educator to come up with the best strategy that can help them understand real-life topics.

Children’s Opinions and Understanding of Turtles

During the length of the project, the students were asked various questions such as where the turtles live, where they lay their eggs, how many eggs they lay and many other questions about turtles which the students were required to voice their own opinions. There are several memorable quotes, but one impressed me the most. The quote was from a child named Galia who asserted that “Inside a turtle, there is a heart because hearts contain life.” and went on to sculpt a plasticine model of a turtle with a heart in the middle (Katz & Chard 15). She did this even when she faced opposition from her classmate Valentine. This was significant to me because at a very young age Galia expressed a great understanding of living things, by giving the turtle a heart, she essentially gave it the same dignity as a human being. Galia demonstrates compassion for the turtle by believing we share the gift of life by being animals even though turtles and humans look different.

Children’s Curiosity and Environmental Conservation

I found this article insightful since it offered a glimpse into how children interpret their environment and the living things within. From what I could see children are eager to understand and explore the environment and the living things within it since they were asking all sorts of questions about turtles such as where they live and how many eggs they lay. This curiosity signified genuine concern for the animals and got me thinking of how children can be taught environmental conservation from an early age. Teaching children all over the world how to conserve the environment from an early age would be very beneficial since they would, in turn, pass this to the generations that come after them.

Effective Ways to Teach Children

This article has helped me understand how children perceive the world and the thought processes they use to arrive at certain conclusions. From the article, I have learned that to effectively teach children one must be patient enough to get their views on the subject to tailor an answer in a manner that the child can best understand. The article has also proven that children learn better through practice and demonstrations like being show live turtles and then being taught the different parts which they are later asked to practice drawing.

Conclusion

Reading the turtle’s project book was insightful for it gave me insight into how children think and how they can be taught and be able to understand all that they are taught. The project in the book was aimed at teaching the children how to take care of the environment with all the children showed great curiosity and seemed to have learned a lot during the eight weeks. For children to learn effectively, they need to be listened to and offered lots of practice because the combination of the two keeps them focused on whatever is being taught. I shall incorporate the insights that I have gained from this article in my schooling and practice of children within the same age group as the participants in the turtle project.

Work Cited

Katz & Chard, Et al. (2012). TURTLES [PDF]. Mexico: Eton School. Pp 11-32.