Biosecurity New Zealand
If you are a student or a teacher looking for information about the biosecurity issues facing New Zealand visit this section to find out more about how individuals can help to protect our fragile environment.
www.biosecurity.govt.nz
Clean up the world
Find out what the rest of the world is doing to reduce waste. This annual event, held around the third weekend of September each year, brings together millions of people in more than 100 countries and inspires them to clean up and conserve their environment.
www.cleanuptheworld.org
Department of Conservation
The Department of Conservation website has a very useful section for teachers and students. You can download publications and activity sheets based around themes in environmental education and find out about field trips that can be arranged in your region.
www.doc.govt.nz/getting-involved/for-teachers/
Ecological Footprint
Answer a series of questions to calculate your personal ecological footprint: i.e. the amount of land required in New Zealand to support your lifestyle. It is suitable for secondary levels.
www.mfe.govt.nz/withyou/do/footprint/index.html
Ecokids
The site is highly interactive and designed to encourage children to become proactive in protecting and enhancing the environment. It's packed full of games, activity sheets, animations, fun downloads, and more. By completing various environmental missions on the site, children score points, putting them into weekly prize draws. The site features cutting edge technology, such as instant messaging, video and podcasting.
www.ecokids.co.nz
Education for the Environment
This web page from the TKI environmental education community links to a paper that explores the issue of 'education for the environment' and outlines strategies teachers can use. It provides examples of students' work from schools that have put the environmental paper into practice, and includes video clips from year 7-8 students.
www.tki.org.nz/r/environ_ed/sustainable_future/education_e.php
Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority
Energy fuels our lifestyles, at work and at home, 24 hours a day. The time has come to make smarter energy choices - to get more value from the energy we use, waste less and start building a cleaner, more dependable energy system which makes better use of renewable energy resources.
www.eeca.govt.nz
Environmental Education Blog
The environmental education/sustainable futures blogsite is designed as a platform by which examples of environmental education practice in schools and current research can be posted, shared and commented upon by teachers, researchers and environmental education practitioners.
www.esf.co.nz/esf
Environmental Monitoring and Action Group (EMAP)
Lots of water based resources and information about what schools are doing around the country in regards to monitoring freshwater resources. Includes curriculum planning resources, newsletters and case studies.
Five different study areas can be investigated through the EMAP project. These are Hydrology (water studies), Atmosphere (weather studies) Soil, Land Cover (changes in land use) and Phenology (Seasonal effects).
http://www.emap.rsnz.org/index.php
Emergency Management - What's the Plan Stan?
What's the Plan Stan is a Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management initiative for primary schools, featuring Stan the dog and five children who model what to do in an emergency. The emergencies include; earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes, storms, floods and non-natural disasters. The education resource kit has a number of components:
- A guide for teachers, including unit plans and activities
- A CD Rom for teachers and students, including stories, interactive games, research material, tips for teachers and resources that can be cut and pasted into unit plans.
- A website: www.whatstheplanstan.govt.nz
The GLOBE Programme
The GLOBE Program enables you and your class to engage in a collaborative, scientific exploration of the world around you, collaborating with other teachers and students from around the world. The GLOBE Website provides access to materials to engage your students in science and scientific discovery: http://www.globe.gov/teaching-and-learning
To see events, news and updates specific to New Zealand visit: http://www.globe.gov/web/new-zealand
The Gould League
The Gould League is Australia's leading environmental education organisation. Their website has interactive activities, resources and environmental tips.
www.gould.edu.au
Guide to Local Government
An excellent guide to local government, what they do etc.
guide.localgovt.co.nz/index.html
Kakariki Games - Cloak of Protection
Our Birds. Our Predators. An environmental CARD GAME. Whether any animal on our beautiful planet has a future is determined by how it can respond to the environmental cards dealt out by the cold & sweeping hand of fate.
http://kakarikigames.co.nz/wordpress/cloak-protection/
Keep New Zealand Beautiful
Keep New Zealand Beautiful is a non profit organisation operating as a charitable trust to promote litter abatement, waste reduction and town and city beautification, setup under the NZ Litter Act 1979.
www.knzb.org.nz
Kids R Green
Kids R Green is an interactive website for children who love exploring, enquiring, investigating and discovering the world we live in. This exclusive online monthly environmental magazine has many interesting features and is a window to becoming part of a greener world. And it is just a click away!
www.kidsrgreen.org
Landcare Research - Freshwater Invertebrates Guide
Freshwater invertebrates (insects, crustaceans, snails, worms and other small critters) are often used as indicators of the state of streams, rivers, lakes and ponds. This web resource is designed to assist community groups monitoring freshwater invertebrates in New Zealand.
http://fwinverts.landcareresearch.co.nz
Marine NZ
A new site all about New Zealand's marine environment. Lots of images and a range of resources designed specifically for teachers and students.
www.marinenz.org.nz
Maori Organisation online directory
The link below is to a comprehensive website directory of iwi and Maori organisations. One of its main purposes is to provide updated contact details so can be referred to as and when needed.
http://www.tkm.govt.nz/
Recycle City
Play this game to learn about the different ways of disposing of solid waste. Suitable for year 7–9 students, the game involves trialling different waste management programmes and judging their effectiveness against implementation costs.
www.epa.gov/recyclecity
Recycling Saves Money
Find out how you can save money through recycling. This resource looks at traditional methods of recycling, the importance of recycling and why we should all be taking part. The website also provides productive and informative activities for children to participate and engage in while learning how to recycle. http://valuestockguide.com/recycling-saves-money/
Reduce, reuse, recycle
An informative directory of listings linking to 'reduce, reuse, recycle' resources.
www.printerinks.com/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Resources.html
also...
PartSelect offer a fun and educational reference to learn about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling, to increase awareness and concern for the environment among school aged children.
http://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.aspx
Science in a Van
Science in a Van is a a fun and innovate way to see, teach and engage with science. We travel the country providing training sessions for teachers, science shows and experiences for students. A blog is also available with free access and is regularly updated with classroom ideas and easy to follow experiments. www.scienceinavan.blogspot.com
SchoolTools
SchoolTools is a free resource for all New Zealand primary school teachers to allow them to have their own educational and interactive class website.
www.schooltools.co.nz
STARfish
Online resources for teachers and students on New Zealand's fisheries and fisheries management.
www.starfish.govt.nz
Sustainability action in New Zealand
An excellent range of resources about reducing your impact with rubbish, water, energy, building, transport, gardening and shopping.
www.sustainability.govt.nz
The Treasures of the Sea
WWF New Zealand have launched a marine biodiversity online reference. Its an in-depth summary of all our marine species and includes general descriptions and information about status, location, threats and habitats. While too technical for primary school students, this would be useful for senior high school and tertiary students and as a background reference for any teacher.
www.treasuresofthesea.org.nz
Up the Creek
Learn how fresh water supports life by taking a journey Up the Creek, Department of Conservation’s interactive website on the lifecycle of whitebait - an online teaching resource developed aimed at children aged 11-14 and is fully bi-lingual.
www.upthecreek.org.nz
Waitangi Treaty Grounds - education programme
Under the funding allocation through the Ministry of Education, the programme entitled Waitangi Taonga Trail is available at a discounted rate for a maximum of 30 students per visit. The learning experiences we provide will include ‘hands-on’ activities with artifacts, educational site tours, bush walks, audio visual display, stories, displays and role-play.
www.waitangi.net.nz/learning/schools-education-institutions.htm
Do you have a useful site we should add to this list?
Send an mail to the Northland Regional Council webmaster with your own favourite environmental education sites for teachers and students - mailroom@nrc.govt.nz