The Council’s Education Officer Susan Botting sought funding for the kits from BOC Limited’s ‘Where There’s Water’ fund, which is administered by the Wellington-based New Zealand Water Environment Research Foundation.
The ‘SHMAK’ (stream health monitoring and assessment kits) kits are worth about $430 each and help people test for macroinvertabrates (bugs), chemicals and other indicators of stream health.
They were purchased from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Christchurch and are being used by the 16 Northland schools as part of their water-quality based environmental education.
Ms Botting says kits have been presented to Dargaville Intermediate, Kamo High School, Kokopu School, Mangakahia Area School, Ngataki School, Okaihau Primary School, Oromahoe School, Otamatea High School, Pukepoto School, Raurimu Avenue School, Te Horo School, Tikipunga High School, Whangarei Heads School, Te Kura Taumata o Panguru, Westmount School (Kaipara) and Whangaruru School.
The kits were given to the schools yesterday (Weds 25 May) at the first of the Regional Council’s two Teacher Workshops for 2005, both of which will have a water-quality based environmental education theme. A 17th school represented at yesterday’s workshop – Whangarei Girls High School – had already received a kit after a similar application on its behalf last year.
Ms Botting says the Council held the first workshop on Wednesday at Aroha Island Ecological Centre, near Kerikeri, because of growing schools’ interest in the health of the region’s freshwater streams, lakes and rivers.
She says the workshops aimed to build on participants’ existing knowledge to help teach children to create and drive projects that care for local streams or rivers. The second workshop is planned for Wednesday 22 June.
Ms Botting says the Council is pleased that environmental education in Northland is receiving support from organisations like BOC Limited and the New Zealand Water Environment Research Foundation.
“The Northland Regional Council is a keen supporter of environmental education but obviously does not have unlimited resources to purchase items like these water quality testing kits for local schools.”
She says the grant awarded to the Regional Council is especially pleasing because it is the biggest in New Zealand in the latest funding round. The Northland grant accounts for just under a quarter of the $30,000 awarded nationally.