Pirates Voyaging to Costa Rica

Over the summer of 2019, a group of Page Pirates, any junior or senior in the International Baccalaureate program, will be traveling to Costa Rica to take part in a sea turtle ecology program! Ecology Program International is a company that offers courses for high school students. One of these courses is in Costa Rica, a country in Central America. This trip is nine days long. Day one will begin in America and end in Costa Rica where everyone will get settled in. On days two through five, the group will travel to a Leatherback Sea Turtle reserve to learn about sea turtle biology, conservation issues, and rainforest ecology. Days six through eight will be in a private rainforest reserve where everyone will get to observe many animals that you would not see day to day in Greensboro such as the Central American Squirrel Monkey and the Red-legged Honeycreeper.

On this once-in-a-lifetime trip, every student will have the chance to earn 14 hours of service and 30 hours of coursework. The Ecology Project International began in 2000 when 61 teenagers were taken to Costa Rica to work on a conservation project. Today, over 35,000 students have joined in and participated in one of the ecology programs EPI offers. The predation rate of Leatherback Sea Turtle nesting sites in Costa Rica has gone down from 98% to less than 1% since the program began. According to the Ecology International Project website, participants’ knowledge about ecology has increased about 20%! Throughout the trip, students will follow the five E’s; Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. There will be games and activities, experiments, guided activities, teaching sessions to learn about new concepts, and multiple different research projects. This provides a great mix of hands on activities while getting an education, service, and coursework time.

A Leatherback Sea Turtle, the reptile that you will study in a reserve for four days, can be found in certain waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. One of the main causes of this turtle being endangered is because of humans use them for eggs and meat. They are also critically endangered because of accidentally being caught in fishing nets or being harmed by water pollution. At their prime, Leatherback Sea Turtles normally weigh from around 500 pounds to 1,500 pounds. The newborn turtles, however, are extremely small, weighing only a tenth of a pound! Leatherbacks are the most pelagic species of turtles. This means that they live in the open ocean, or the area close to shore. Most people call these turtles Leatherback Sea Turtles, but the scientific name is Dermochelys Coriacea.

Luckily, there will be a fundraiser hosted by the students going and that money will be divided between all participants towards the trip. The Pirates will arrive in Costa Rica on June 13 and will come back on June 21. For more information regarding this trip, you can contact Mrs. Blue, Page’s IB coordinator, or visit the Ecology Project International website. These sources will give you much more information about the trip financially and many more details so that you can sign up today!