Acacio Martinez, 11, Sean Macilwee, 11, Holly Arthur-Worsop, 9, and Kaea Price, 10, have all been taking part in the Tidal Discoveries programme in Tauranga. Photo / Scott Yeoman
Acacio Martinez, 11, Sean Macilwee, 11, Holly Arthur-Worsop, 9, and Kaea Price, 10, have all been taking part in the Tidal Discoveries programme in Tauranga. Photo / Scott Yeoman
Crabs and worms and mud, little fish, a dead octopus and even a pod of dolphins.
That's enough to get any curious child – and maybe even some of their parents – excited and interested about the natural world around them.
Tidal Discoveries – an estuary, stream and dune monitoringprogramme for school students in Tauranga – is working to do just that and this week at Welcome Bay School, enthusiasm for the environment was in full show.
"Getting really muddy and discovering new stuff," was what Summer Taruia, 10, from Selwyn Ridge Primary School, loved most about the programme.
Her schoolmate Georgia Milner, 9, said: "I like the outdoors a lot more now because I like getting muddy and finding new things."
They were among a group of students from Tauranga Intermediate School, Matua Primary School, Maungatapu Primary School, Welcome Bay School and Selwyn Ridge Primary School who presented their findings from several visits to their local estuaries, where they conducted scientific monitoring and collected data on the different species found.
Other schools involved in the programme focused on freshwater streams and dune systems.
Tidal Discoveries now had 10 schools on board, with about 500 children and 60 teachers and parents monitoring 12 sites in and around Tauranga.
Emma Richardson, who ran the programme, said it was all about connecting the children "to their natural space".
"This is a classic example of what can be done in your own world … this is something palpable that kids can do, but they are also doing it as part of their schooling. They're learning scientific recording principles, they're learning maths, English, they're learning how to work as a team."
Richardson said the children were also learning just by being in the environment, by getting muddy and hands-on outdoors and being "an authentic scientist" – out in the field, not just in the classroom or behind a book.
"If you actually go and you experience mud, you don't forget that, it's like meeting a tiger," she said.
"You can walk along a beach and that's quite a different experience to being submerged in mud, and that's where the learning begins."
Roger Colquhoun, a teacher from Selwyn Ridge Primary School, said the children were engaged "in real-life science" and the fact it was at their local estuary made it even more thought-provoking and memorable.
"This is where they swim, this is where they play."
Kirsty McKenzie, a Tauranga Intermediate School teacher, agreed with that sentiment.
Her students saw a pod of dolphins one day, in the same area where they did the monitoring and picked up rubbish.
"They can see the changes and the impact they have on the health of the estuary," McKenzie said.
Summer Taruia (left), 10, and Georgia Milner, 9, from Selwyn Ridge Primary School, enjoying a new science card game called Marine Invaders. Photo / Scott Yeoman
Maungatapu Primary School teacher Joy Elder said the Tidal Discoveries programme encouraged the children to take ownership of their local estuary and environment. As adults, maybe that feeling of responsibility and guardianship would continue, and would then be passed on to others.
Her students made flyers about what they were doing and put them in letterboxes in the neighbourhood.
Eddie Sykes, a community engagement co-ordinator at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, was at the event this week listening to the student presentations.
The regional council funded Tidal Discoveries through its Community Initiatives Fund.
"Any community group, marae, schools that are looking to do environmental projects on public land or land with public access, there is funding available for them to do that," Sykes said.
Elizabeth Copeland from the University of Waikato's Faculty of Science and Engineering was also there, and shared a new science card game she created.
The game, called Marine Invaders, was a big hit with the kids.
"The game's about the ecological interaction between native and invasive species in specifically New Zealand and Tauranga Harbour," Copeland said.
"We specifically chose species that were being studied at the coastal marine field station and species that people were really worried about invading particularly Tauranga Harbour, and also the native species that people are really interested in protecting."
