A Freirean liberatory perspective of community colleges education: critical consciousness and social justice science issues in the biology curriculum.

This paper discusses the value of a Freirean liberatory perspective in community colleges, countering the traditional "second chance" or "social reproduction" viewpoints attributed by scholars to the education offered in these institutions, emphasizing its vital need in science and healthcare careers education. I explore the potential of this perspective by providing illustrative examples from a biology course incorporating social justice science issues in the curriculum to examine their relationship in cultivating students' critical consciousness at a community college with a programmatic emphasis on healthcare professions.

[Reproductive ecology and hunting of the turtle Tachemys scropta (Testudinata: Emydidae) in the "Momposine Depression", Northern Colombia]. / Ecologia reproductiva y cacería de la tortuga Trachemys scripta (Testudinata: Emydidae), en el área de la Depresión Momposina, norte de Colombia.

We studied the reproductive ecology of the slider turtle. Trachemys scripta callirostris, during the reproductive season of the year 2000, in an area of the Mompós Depression, northern Colombia. We examined the number of nests ovoposited in locations with different characteristics, their hatching success rates and the natural causes of egg mortality. We also determined the effects of exploitation of nesting females, in two populations with different levels of harvesting. The results showed that the majority of nests were laid along bodies of water, in the first 20 m of the shoreline, in sites with substrates of moderate humidity, sand and clayish texture, covered by creeping vegetation. Invertebrates produced the greatest mortality in the nests. Hatching success was high, compared to other reports for this species. Only in the site with the highest hunting pressure a negative correlation was found, between the harvest rate and the time elapsed since the start of the nesting period, suggesting that the excessive extraction decreased the number of nesting females. Also, the females from the highly exploited site were significantly smaller than those from the less exploited site. The females, neonates and nests of the entire area, exhibited sizes below that reported for other tropical populations of the genus. The continued hunting pressure in northern Colombia, appears to be a factor that has altered the structure and population dynamics of T. scripta callirostris.