Project Blog - Green Sea Turtle - 3/12/17

Summary: The reason sea turtles are endangered is all because of humans. Some harm it for its meat and eggs, and others use the turtle for medicine. In addition, they are harmed from boat propellers, and fishnets. As well as the more that beaches get trashed, the population of green sea turtles decreases. This is due to the fact that they need to nest on the beach. With all the space taken up by trash, the turtles have no place to lay their eggs. But not only are they being killed, so is their food. The food source for the green sea turtle, sea grass, is a victim of coastal development. This means there is more pollution and sediment in the water and renders the sea grass uneatable. In 2004, green sea turtles were put on the iucn red list. Even though the iucn only recognized them then, the concern of their endangerment dates back to 1940. Not only are green sea turtles used for medicine and meat, they consume sea grass and keep it healthy. By keeping the sea grass healthy other animals like fish can consume it, as well. Green sea turtles however only have a few state and national laws, despite the need for more ways to protect them. Conservationists are trying to turn away from making money off of killing the turtles and try to increase the popularity of turtle tourism.

Backward-Looking: I never knew anything about the green sea turtle itself before this project. However I did know about endangered animals and what it meant to be an endangered animal. An endangered species is any animal that is in danger of going extinct. As for the information about the sea turtle, I had to gather all while working on the information gathering portion of the project. Now I know many interesting things about the green sea turtle. Such as the green sea turtle can survive in both cold and warm water oceans. They can be found around the world. As long as they have food, like sea grass. As well as they can live up to 70-80 years, and that the green sea turtle has been around since the time of the dinosaurs. I knew some information on what an endangered species was, but now I know a lot more about the green sea turtle.

Inward-Looking: I feel proud on what we were able to do in such a short period of time. We were able a very good looking and informative info graphic (in my opinion). We were missing some components, but then were able to add it later on. The only thing was that because of the short amount of time we didn't have to time to practice our presentation which had us skip some key information or forget lines. Despite the rushed feeling I did enjoy and like this project because I got to learn more about something I didn't know that much about.

Outward-Looking: In this project many people had different presentations or different ways to display their information. As well as not everyone was doing the same project. Some people (like us) were doing endangered species project and a way to save them. While others made an invasive species project that talked about how to prevent more harm by that species. Despite everyone (that was doing the same project) had to display the same information (about their animal) it could be displayed in different ways. Some made a poster, some a video and others made a brochure. This project was not only fun and a good way to learn about a species, you could also put your own twist into it.

Forward-Looking: If I were to do this again I would change a few things. First I would have split up the work on the brochure so it would have gotten done faster rendering more time to practice the presentation. Second I would have used a different website for or brochure because they only give you limited space which is why we couldn't include the stuff we got docked for. Lastly, if it wasn't mandatory I guess I wouldn't have made an info graphic. We would have made either a short video or poster because you have more space to express your ideas. I am happy with the way things turned out, but I still would change somethings.