Waimea College students’ active interest in Evolocity has grown from 1 team in 2015, 4 teams in 2016 to 10 teams from Years 9 to 13, this year. Technology and Design teacher, Will Taylor, opens the technology workshop on Tuesdays after school. No notices go out nor reminders, yet the workshop is filled with keen students every Tuesday after school along with up to five teachers in support, covering mechanical engineering, physics and electronics. They are busily designing and building a variety of bikes or carts, as well as developing the circuitry and programming so their vehicles with electric motors are ready to race and manoeuvre. There are a range of competitive elements the students need to consider to foster as many qualities in their vehicle as possible, ready for the races in November, both regional and national. 

Last year, the Waimea College Hornets won both the fastest street circuit for bikes and rolling resistance events, Waimea College Unleashed also won the fastest street circuit for karts and were a very close second in the rolling resistance.  

Jake Mirfin, built a go-kart from scratch in class last year to enter into the Kart races at Tapawera and that led him to join Evolocity this year with three of his mates. The vehicle is an upcycled old trike and sack barrow from home. Jake and Blake are responsible for the mechanical engineering requiring drawing and designing, bracing, welding and testing and Carlos is responsible for the electronics and circuitry. Reilly is responsible for the programming. Carlos says he builds the electronical circuit and Reilly makes it work. Together they are working on ensuring their bike can do tight corners, longevity, speed and manouvrability. Good luck to all teams. 

Salisbury School in Richmond has been a Green Gold School since 2010. The school recently celebrated its centenary on the 1st and 2nd of October 2016.

The highly successful weekend included a pōwhiri to welcome guests, unveiling of a panel depicting Salisbury’s history from 1916 to the present, speeches from the local Mayor Richard Kempthorne and local MP Damien O'Connor.

Photographs were taken, including students and staff covering the years from 1944 to 2016 and present Board of Trustees, and several trees of significance were planted in the native bush area by dignitaries and students.

The evening dinner was attended by over one hundred guests and Sundays bus trip down “Memory Lane” to a variety of local areas of interest created a lot of nostalgia.

The whole weekend was made possible by the support of the local community, who rallied behind the school providing volunteers for parking, serving food and pre- weekend garden tidy up.

Take a look at some of our pages from the Tasman region Scrapbook ....

Ngatimoti School and their story on their school-wide theme for 2014

Pinegrove Kindergarten and their work with tree planting

Parklands Enviro Actions

In 2014, 27 Tasman and Nelson students worked with Papa Taiao to learn about and gain Unit Standard credits in Possum trapping, skinning and plucking.  Some students have even continued to trap possums damaging our native biodiversity.

In 2015, another 30 students met to learn about trapping other predators and gained the skills necessary to have an effect on reducing rat and stoat numbers.

Deepening practices in sustainability

Local teachers, who see the wonderful plastic bottle growing house at Greenwood Kindergarten that children and staff designed and built, say they want one too.

When these teachers ask the staff at Greenwood how they did it, what they hear is a reflection about the rich process of taking time to empower children and together learning and designing each baby step to enjoy the journey of actions to achieve their vision. This is in sharp contrast to knowing how easy it is for teachers to make the decisions to quickly get things to happen, which often involves seeking funding as the answer to achieve the sort after things.

Greenwood staff had a vision of becoming a solar powered kindergarten. First thought was how to afford the solar panels they could have. However, they put a hold on those thoughts. They knew they had to start a few steps back on the Action Learning Cycle. Although, there may be alternatives to just finding money as the solution to a specific project achievement, the teachers also knew that ‘ako’ with the children and parent community is the real key to engagement and development of any worthwhile project.

Identifying how the sun already works in the Kindergarten was the best way to start their inquiry learning to lead to action. You can imagine all of the activities and science experiments the teachers did to help children and themselves gain knowledge and experiences around temperatures and the power of the sun. After all, solar power is natural not just something that is technologically derived.

Children’s questions led to internet investigations and the first project was to make and use a solar oven, using what was made available and was achieved at no cost. It is an interesting part of any action process to find that after setting a worthwhile shared goal and being prepared to explore alternatives, doors more easily open to potential resources. Of note, was that silver card was used to minimise the reflected intensity of the solar oven heat. Even then, staff observed it still took 6 months before all of the children gained the courage to put their hand in the solar oven to feel the heat and thus experience this solar process. The children and teachers became aware of how much they could more effectively use solar power for all sorts of things. They used times of the day and places around the Kindergarten for best drying or shade. Creative experiences with enhancing paper mâché bricks, water for play, and choice of clothing, light reflection and growing things all benefited through developing their solar energy kindergarten.

When the question arose of how to grow plants in winter, both staff and children explored what others had done and had fun experimenting with designs. This led to the plastic bottle Grow House project.

The ethics around plastic bottle options was addressed benefitting healthy choice awareness. By also bringing the community on board, it was another successful learning outcomes solar-powered project with little cost. Next step is to investigate water conservation and warming water for the Grow House in winter. The teachers at Greenwood have integrated solar power into their Kindergarten in a myriad of ways and enriched children’s learning by stepping back to use the Action Learning Cycle with the children. And, there’s still the possibility of having solar panels one day.

Photo 1 – TDC Councillor Eileen Wilkins and the 4 year old main designer opening the Grow House December 2011 at Silver Level celebration
Photo 2 – Kid safe solar oven at Greenwood KindergartenPhoto 3, 4, 5 – Fitting the bottles together to make a row and fitting the rows together can be practised over and over. All sorts of things may be needed and tall teacher Shayne puts in the high rows.