Aquarium science and marine biology major Colin Marshall visits Turtle Aruba, answering fourth-graders' questions about the shelled creatures

Fourteen months ago, fourth graders at the Academy of Notre Dame, Tyngsboro, found four tiny turtles which they promptly adopted to live in Donna Acquaviva's classroom.  As they cared for them over those months, they began to develop questions, lots of questions.

The answers arrived via Colin Marshall, an aquarium science and marine biology major at the University of New England and a 2007 graduate of the Academy who has loved turtles since he was a young boy. 

However, if he had planned a formal presentation, his audience quickly altered that plan.  As soon as Acquaviva introduced him, hands flew up and the questions poured out. 

How can you tell if they're boys or girls? (Males have longer tails and claws.) What do they like to eat? (Turtles are opportunistic eaters so outdoors they eat bugs and vegetation, but in captivity will eat vegetables like lettuce and brussel sprouts.)  Mrs. Acquaviva gives them hotdogs.  (Marshall politely discouraged that.) 

What do they do in winter?  (Hibernate.  Turtles can slow their metabolisms down and live without food for two months.)  What kind of turtles are they?  (Eastern Painted Turtles.)  How long will they live?  (Twenty to thirty years.)  What's the white stuff our turtles have on them?  (Probably dead skin since, as turtles grow, they shed their skin - even their shells are part of their skin.)

As the questions slowed, Marshall took the opportunity to introduce his friend Sam, his pet land tortoise, which was substantially larger with a bumpy shell ... and which was dealing with a cold that day.

He explained that turtles are curious creatures and that he's always been fascinated with them.  In fact, he shared that back in kindergarten he made it his goal to work hard and get good grades so that, one day, he could work at an aquarium. 

Encouraging the ten-year-olds to follow their dreams, he explained how he started working at a pet shop when he was a freshman in high school and, for the past year-and- a-half, he has volunteered as an intern at the New England Aquarium, Boston, during school vacations.  His long-term goal, however, is a full-time position at the New England Aquarium in Boston after he graduates.

As his visit drew to an end, Acquaviva asked the students to tell Marshall what they named their turtles' home - a large glass aquarium with heat lamps, colorful stones and artificial coral reefs donated by a parent, Diane Hall.  In unison, they responded, "Turtle Aruba!"  How right they are.  These turtles are, indeed, living in their own 'One Happy Island!'