Conservation Education update- Term 2 2017 No Images? Click here Welcome to the second edition of our conservation education newsletter. Autumn is here so we're all about making friends with the critters beneath our feet. Insects are fascinating and we have plenty of ideas to spark students' interest. Check out how Country Crèche in Hamilton are creating habitats for insects in their garden. Also find out about the awesome Toyota Kiwi Guardians programme, Habitat Heroes competition and new education resources recently added to our online library. Best wishes for Term 2! ~ DOC Outreach and Education team Conservation stars: Country Crèche, HamiltonChildren at Country Crèche have come up with some creative ideas to make their playground insect friendly. Check out this slideshow they put together to share their learning: Students also constructed an incredible Christmas tree insect house for Hamilton’s ‘Trees at the Meteor’ 2016 event – Special thanks to Linda Jones from Country Crèche for sharing this amazing conservation story! Above photo: Building the Christmas tree insect house (Credit: Linda Jones) Right photo: Finished product! (Credit: Linda Jones) Teaching and learning about insectsExperiencing invertebrates in your green space - Using this resource, students will:
Build a Wētā motel - Earn a Kiwi Guardians action medal by creating a wētā 'motel' in your backyard! It's a home for wētā to crawl into, to protect them from being eaten by introduced predators like rats, stoats, cats and hedgehogs. Insects of New Zealand playing cards - The card deck features 52 native insects hand illustrated by Emma Scheltema. This project is made possible with generous funding by the Entomological Society of New Zealand. It’s a Bug’s Life: science resource for ECE and Primary - Created by Te Papa in partnership with three Wellington-region ECE centres. There are lots of helpful recommendations, activity ideas, case studies, and details about other resources, to inform, guide, and inspire your scientific journeys. Ahi Pepe | MothNet - A citizen science project that aims to engage teachers, students and whānau with moths, and by doing this, gaining a better understanding of how the ecological world is made up of a network of connections and links. This website includes information about the project and moth identification guides. Insect mihi - Science Learning Hub activity - Students write a formal introduction for an insect species of their choice, including information about the insect’s relationship to other animals and also the land. This is designed to help them think about how the Linnaean classification system works. Toyota Kiwi GuardiansToyota Kiwi Guardians is an activity programme for kids to learn about nature, earn cool rewards and go on epic adventures. The programme was launched in March 2016 and now has over fifty sites and a wide range of action medals kids can claim. Take a look at how the programme started- New Conservation Education resourcesExperiencing native trees in your green space - Using this resource, students will:
Observing a royal albatross/toroa - New activities to support student viewing of the Royal cam. The activities encourage students to develop observation skills and learn about the royal albatross life cycle. Kākāpō Recovery education resource - This resource has been designed to accompany the Kākāpō Kingdom video clips developed by our partners Meridian Energy. This resource and the videos introduce students to-
Online teacher professional development opportunitiesDOC has partnered with the Science Learning Hub to deliver four free professional learning webinars introducing the Whio Forever education resource – 6 April: Diving into inquiry with whio (recorded webinar now online) – This is an introduction to the resource and DOC’s inquiry learning model. 11 May: Why learn about whio? – This will extend understandings about the whio and why it is so important to New Zealand. 1 June: Inquiry outside the classroom – This session is designed to build teachers’ confidence to support their students to explore their environment. 22 June: Taking action for conservation – Discover how to support students to put what they have learned through inquiry into action for conservation. Staff SpotlightAnnabelle Studholme: Outreach and Education Coordinator, Eastern and Southern South IslandWhat I'm currently working on... Enabling Youth Leadership - bringing together a group of young people leading restoration projects across New Zealand, to see what we can learn together about conservation leadership. DOC piloted Growing Voices in 2016, a programme to bring the voice of young people into decision making and planning at DOC. This inspiring community of 40 young people 15-25 contributed a powerful submission for the review of the Aoraki Management Plan. They shared their visions and concerns and are working with us as this plan is written, contributing their karanga – the call of the young - as kaitiaki of their place. What I'm excited about in 2017... I can’t believe we are already nearly half way through the year! The National Strategy for Environmental Education for Sustainability is set to be released this month, an exciting time for three government departments working together to support conservation as a context for classroom learning (indoor and outdoor!). Also look out for our ‘Investigating Alpine Environments’ secondary resource due to be released soon! What I love most about my role... Working with young people! I am inspired by the power of our rangatahi and see them rise up as kaitaki time and time again. One of the five pillars of our DOC Outreach and Education strategy is Young People Leading Conservation Change. Working with our communities to make this a reality is what gets me out of bed every morning, along with my chirpy five year old! Noteworthy Nature competitions and dates Habitat Heroes competition - Habitat Heroes encourages young people to explore a local natural environment and think about how they can make a difference. The 2017 competition will be taking place in New Zealand between 18 April 2017 and 29 September 2017. International Biodiversity Day 22 May World Turtle Day 23 May World Environment Day 5 June Arbour Week 5-11 June World Oceans Day 8 June NZ Garden Bird Survey 24 June – 2 July Got Any Feedback?What do you think of this newsletter? Do you have conservation teaching and learning experiences to share? Email us your feedback and be in to win one of five $50 Prezzy Cards Want to access the full range of DOC education resources? |