Turtle watchers: on Florida beaches, everyone gets involved in saving the sea turtles.

It's lights-out along the beaches of Volusia County, Florida, from May 1 to October 31. That's when newly hatched turtles leave their shells behind in search of ocean waters and home. But bright lights from beachfront homes and businesses can distract the young turtles, causing them to crawl away from the sea.

"We encourage people to join the Volusia Sea Turtle Society to teach awareness of the different species of endangered sea turtles on our beaches," said Jennifer Winters. Winters manages the county's sea turtle conservation plan.

The society recruits volunteers to patrol beaches, looking for newly hatched turtle nests. About 100 baby turtles, called hatchlings, crawl out of each nest. Volunteers mark and protect the nests. Some even adopt nests, recording and protecting them from start to finish.

The laying cycle begins in early May, when hundreds of sea turtles--leatherback, loggerhead, and green turtles--come ashore to lay their eggs. They disguise the nests by covering them with sand before heading back to sea. Left on their own, the hatchlings dig their way out about two months later.

During the nesting period, the fragile eggs must be protected from cars and people, said Steve Kintner, Volusia County's director of environmental management. "We have people who drill conservation posts into the sand to prevent people from driving and parking on the soft sand where turtles' nests may be found."

Volusia is looking forward to an abundant 2007 season. In 2006, volunteers counted 399 nests.

Scholostic Kid Reporter Jimmy Pitenis is in the fifth grade at Tomoko Elementary School in Daytona Beach, Florida.

* Objectives

Students should be able to:

* discuss specific ways ill which global warming appears to be affecting the environment.

* understand that everyone can take simple steps to cut energy consumption and waste.

* Word to Know

* aquifer: a layer of porous rock capable of holding and transmitting water.

* Background

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Its first report, issued in 1990, played a major role in establishing the UN Frame-work Convention on Climate Change, adopted by the General Assembly in 1994. The report being issued this year is the group's fourth.

* Critical Thinking

NOTING DETAILS: How has climate change affected snowfall in Vermont? (Snowfalls have declined 30 inches in the last 30 years.)

MAKING CONNECTIONS: Using our general suggestions--"Be a Part of the Solution"--what specific steps can you take to reduce waste on a day-to-day basis? (Answers will vary.)

* Activity

A UNIVERSAL PROBLEM? Has the weather in your community changed in the last 20 to 30 years? Have students interview parents, grandparents, or neighbors. Is there less or more precipitation? Are summers longer or shorter? Add these findings to the debate about how rapidly climate change is affecting Earth.

STANDARD

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* People, places, and environments: Earth's climate is changing quickly in ways that can be seen.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth (young readers edition) (Viking/Rodale, 2006). Grades 5 & up.

* Silverstein, Alvin, et al, Global Warming (Lerner Publishing, 2003). Grades 5 & up.

WEB SITES

* Climate Change Kids' Site/EPA epa.gov/climatechange/kids

* Earth Day Network earthday.net

QUICK QUIZ

* Write the correct answer to each question on the line provided.

1. What uses 75 percent less energy than regular light bulbs?--

2. What type of waste accounts for 40 percent of our landfills?--

3. Why are some New Englanders worried about "the maple's biological clock"?--

4. The irrigation of farms in California's San Joaquin Valley depends on water from which mountains?--

5. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created by which international organization?--

ANSWERS

1. compact fluorescent bulbs

2. paper

3. that the tree, which requires weeks of freezing weather, might disappear from a too-warm Vermont

4. Sierra Nevadas

5. the United Nations (UN)