Education

Introduction

Education plays a key part in the West Coast Penguin Trust’s activities. We know that children can develop a lifelong value for nature particularly in the age range 6-10 if they are given the opportunity. Not only that, but they love penguins and share their enthusiasm with their extended family and friends.

Having developed our educational resource and while supporting teachers to use it, the Trust is also keen to connect to senior school teachers and students and has worked with Erica Jar at Buller High School, providing material for her Year 10 ecology curriculum classes. Those notes and lesson plans are available here, with grateful thanks to Erica: Penguin Ecology Year 10 lesson notes by Erica Jar, Buller High School 2017

Penguin and Seabird Educational Resource

The Trust has developed a penguin and seabird education resource especially for the West Coast but it will be of value for educators and children everywhere, particularly coastal areas of New Zealand.

“Blue Penguins & Other Seabirds. Activities for exploration and action for schools and community groups” is aimed at children in the age range 5 to 9 but can be adapted for younger or older children. The goal is for local people to learn about and take action for the wildlife in their own back yard. Research has also shown that children gain essential values for the environment and a connectedness to nature in this age group.

On the West Coast, where the rural communities are very spread out, the provision of a resource of easy to use activities for teachers and youth leaders, to use as and when it suits them, will realistically reach more children than the Trust can reach through occasional visits and classroom sessions.

Printed copies are being supplied to every primary school, home school group, scout, guide and other youth groups as well as DOC education rangers and school holiday programme providers.

The resource has been written by environmental educator, Zoe Watson. It is aligned to the NZ Curriculum but the activities will work just as well within the structures of youth groups such as guides and scouts or holiday programmes.

Examples of badges available to Brownies are Out ‘n’ About, which includes enjoying nature and how to be observant, Animal World (caring for wildlife) and Green Machine (conservation). The education package will provide resources to help children work towards their badges at Brownies, Guides, Scouts and other youth groups.

Fun learning activities will be included within the education resource, including games and arts and crafts, which can be used by other groups including for example REAP (Rural Education Activities Programme), who provide holiday activities on the West Coast. With all the resources on line, they are readily available to home school parents and students and indeed anyone with an interest in sharing a love for and interest in the coastal environment with children.

The project focusses on blue penguins but includes sooty shearwaters (both species are in Gradual Decline, 2005 NZ Threat Classification System), Fiordland Crested Penguins or Tawaki (Nationally Endangered) and Westland Petrels (Range Restricted), all in their natural habitat. The coastal habitat of these species on the West Coast has, as it has around NZ, been modified or disturbed by humans and their activities.

We welcome any feedback on the new education resource and we would also love to receive photographs and stories as you have a go at the various activities. Please send them to us at [email protected].

We hope you enjoy learning about and taking action for penguins and seabirds.

NOTE: In the resource, we introduce countershading and the idea of penguin camouflage. That long held theory has been considered by The Tawaki Project’s Dr Thomas Mattern and found to be wanting. This excellent blog and short video links the countershading to thermoregulation, protection from abrasion, energetic reasons and social signalling. Read all about it and watch the video here.

LEARNZ Videos

The LEARNZ videos that can be used in conjunction with the resource, can be found here:

www.vimeo.com/channels/876850

Generously sponsored by

Education project sponsor logos - Holcim, Pub Charity and Lottery Grants Board

The Trust is being funded to present and demonstrate the material to a number of schools and youth groups during 2015-16 by the TrustPower West Coast Lend a Hand Foundation, the Sargood Bequest Fund and the Scotlands Te Kiteroa Fund so that the effectiveness of the resource can be maximised.

A big thank you to these wonderful grant making bodies!