The Society for protection of the Sea-turtle is a non-profitable organization, which has as its objective the study of the sea turtle in Greece and the channeling of the relevant information to the authorities and public. The Program of Environmental Information for students that started in 1986 belongs to this ” framework”. The program is supported by the Ministry of Education and financed by the European Economic Communities and the International Fund for wild life (WWF Int.). The sea turtle is used as an example of an agelong serpent which is seriously threatened by modern man’s competition and materialistic greed. Thus, this program does not simply aim to introduce the turtle to students of all grades. Its main target is to make them understand the responsibility each and every one of us holds for the environment’s degeneration and to propose an alternative, harmless for the environment, way of life. Knowing thoroughly the biology, habits and difficulties that a sea turtle faces, many examples can be presented in support of the forementioned ideas. The students’ response is very positive and the schools interested in our program are more than we can easily accomodate. Therefore, our desire to satisfy all applications, even those of remote schools, as well as the need for an educational material easily used led to the creation of the “Turtle Kit”. This kit is a complete mobile program for Environmental Education that has been realized thanks to the support given by the General Secretariat of New Generation and the Ministry of Environment. The “Turtle Kit” contains:
– Photographic exhibition on turtle biology and on the project of its study and protection.
– Relevant printed information.
– Video-tape (27′) entitled “Caretta”; filmed at Zakynthos island from 1980 to 1983.
– Four series of slides, accompanied by texts, on Nature’s functions and the tighs existing among living organisms.
– Gifts for the teachers and the school communities.
– A questionaire.
– Instructions for the teachers, etc. By entrusting the “Turtle Kit” to the teachers to use it as a creative tool we hope that they will succeed in transferring theirs as well as our own environmental problematic and worries to the students. We strongly believe that we all will live in a better world tomorrow if children are properly informed today.
