Tracking Loggerhead Sea Turtles with My Maps

In our fourth grade organisms kit, one of the cool activities we do is track loggerhead sea turtles using marinelife.org. We explore longitude and latitude and put ourselves in the shoes of the scientists that are tracking these turtles. Updated frequently, the website gives longitude and latitude coordinates for a variety of different turtles (each with their own unique name). Students could "adopt a turtle" at the beginning of the unit and each day plot a point where their turtle is using the coordinates given for that day. They could each create their own map, or using the collaborative map feature, each turtle could be given a different color and each student could plot their points on one class map. That would be pretty neat to compare! A plus is the real-life experience students are getting and practicality of the activity.