It’s a hot day at the beach in the middle of June. At one beach, there are a bunch of leatherback sea turtles and their eggs. Senior Ryan Sweinhart and her friends decide to go back to the beach later that night to do a night swim and see baby leatherback sea turtles entering the ocean for the first time.
14 seniors and juniors at Olentangy Orange High School are going to see the nesting process of leatherback sea turtles on a trip to Costa Rica. This trip will be June 2-10 and is a total of $3,595 per person for food, round trip flights and nine days of learning about leatherback sea turtles and the environment they live in.
“We will be doing a handful of activities such as forest hikes, night hikes, collecting data on leatherback sea turtles and their nesting habits, and being educated on the biology and ecology of Costa Rica along with the importance of conservation,” Sweinhart, a senior attending the trip, said.
The trip will be split into different sections for different days where students will observe and monitor leatherback sea turtles. They will then explore the rainforest and go either rafting or zip lining.
“We will spend half of the trip in the Pacuare Reserve, and the other half will be in another reserve where we can do canopy walks and white-water rafting,” chaperone and AP Environmental Science Teacher Jessica Timmons said.
While the students are out of the country exploring Costa Rica and learning about leatherback sea turtles, their safety is of the utmost importance. There will be many measures in place to ensure that all students are safe while out of the country.
“Students will be instructed to always use the buddy system and never go anywhere alone. The other chaperone, Drew Rock, and I will constantly do head counts, and while we are in Pacuare, there will be armed guards patrolling the beach from time to time,” Timmons said.
The trip to Costa Rica has been in the planning process for a while, so safety is something that has been deeply thought about and taken into consideration throughout the process of choosing what Ecology Project International (EPI) trip to take. Timmons also went on this trip prior to taking her students on it.
“In 2020, I was invited by EPI to study leatherback sea turtles with a group of teachers from all over the globe, but Covid-19 had other plans. I reapplied for 2022 and was actually awarded a scholarship from EPI to study whale sharks in Baja, Mexico. I, unfortunately, couldn’t attend so EPI worked with me and then offered the same scholarship for me to go to Costa Rica in July,” Timmons said.
Timmons wants her students to experience what she got to and deepen their learning through hands-on activities. Students who decided to attend the Costa Rica trip each had their own reasons for wanting to go.
“I decided to join the Costa Rica trip because I am planning on studying environmental sciences in college and thought this would be a great opportunity not only to get to travel to a different country but also gain experience working with scientists to research sea turtles,” Sweinhart said.
The trip to Costa Rica provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn and gain real life experience in the field of environmental science, along with the skills to be able to collaborate with other researchers. This can help students later in life when researching in their own settings.
“The biggest learning aspect in my opinion would be the collaboration of students and experts to help gain knowledge about the importance of conservation and critical thinking, so we as a community can analyze and find solutions to word problems,” Sweinhart said.
Communication and collaboration are a major learning focus for the students going on the trip. They will be learning about the environment and leatherback sea turtles while sharing knowledge and research with each other and having fun all at the same time.
“I am most excited to see all the native wildlife and rainforests, going on night walks through the forests, and collecting/hatching sea turtle eggs,” Sweinhart said.
Students will be learning and researching key skills that will help them in the scientific field while they are in Costa Rica while simultaneously enjoying this once in a lifetime opportunity in the summer before their freshman year of college.
