Last week a group of enthusiastic and passionate year 5 and 6 enviro students visited Auckland Botanical Gardens to learn more about how we can work together to help the environment.
'Ka tipu tahi tatou' 'Together We Grow'
Activity One
Our first activity was learning about how things are powered - like appliances and vehicles.
We played a game where we had to shovel coal to a coal box the fastest.
This taught us that:
- coal is dirty
- shovelling coal is hard work!
- it is not sustainable - we will eventually run out!
We use a LOT of energy in our every day lives.
Luckily, in New Zealand, much of our power is now generated using the wind or water.
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| Powering a hairdryer using pedal power! |
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Winding a handle to make lightbulbs work.
Some light bulks were easier to power than others.
LED light bulbs are the most efficient. |
We can help the environment by:
using less energy - switching off lights or devices when you're not home.
Activity Two
Next we learnt about pest animals and how they are predators.
Pests are animals that harm native birds and trees. We learnt about using a tracker tunnel, it has sticky stuck in inside it and when the pests walk in and out of it they leave footprints. Then we can work out what kind of (pest) footprints it matches. From this we can find out what kind of pests are harming the animals.
Pests harm other animals because they are scared, to protect themselves or it is in their nature - like cats.
Possums are pests that came to New Zealand.
By Alaya & Ayla.
We can help the environment by:
trapping pests and monitoring their numbers.
Activity Three
Entering the 'ngahere' (forest) and learning about the ecosystems there was the favourite activity!
We used our senses to observe nature. We saw and heard lots of tūī, some pīwakawaka (fantail), the tiny riroriro (grey warbler) and some tauhou (silvereye).
We discussed what makes a healthy forest and how everything in the forest is connected, for example; the kererū feeds from the nikau palm tree and the weta and fungi live in this tree.
We can help the environment by:
planting more natives and taking care of them.
Activity Four
We talked about a landscape we had to make based on nature with some water in it.
Once we were finished we were told something would be added to our masterpieces. Our groups got a surprise when we saw the pile of rubbish! We were appalled and confused! We got 5 minutes to think about what would happen once the rubbish had taken over and we talked about what we would do to stop it.
By Kimberley & Eden
We can help the environment by:
keeping our waterways clean and rubbish free.
Our enviro groups favourite activities were:
1st = Exploring the bush
2nd = Learning about pests
3rd = Energy and water care
Huge thank you to Eye on Nature Beautification Trust for organising this trip for us!
