Day 3 at Boyd Hill Nature Park

Today was the third day for Year 6 visiting St Petersburg, Florida where they are attending Herpetology Camp at Boyd Hill Nature Park, St Petersburg, Florida. After the daily snake holding session, the children spent time learning about turtles. They talked about different types of turtles, including tortoises and terrapins, and looked at examples of different shells and mouths. They also looked at X-rays of different female turtles showing their eggs and then made generalisations about the shape and number of eggs that different turtles lay. Mr George had taken in two of his teaching assistants, including the 'not yet fully grown' Florida Snapping Turtle. A trek around the park let the children see both turtles and alligators in and around Lake Maggiore. In the afternoon, they worked on piecing together a 'jigsaw' of a turtles shell. Vocabulary today? Ask our students when they return to explain the meaning of carapace; plastron; keratin; riverine; molluscovore or crepuscular! The day was finished off with a picnic dinner followed by an evening/night hike. Once it was dark, Mr Greg shone a flashlight (covered in red cellophane) onto the lake...and there aere at least 10 pairs of eyes shining back...alligator fedding time!