Northland Regional Council’s Climate Action, Education, and Te Tiriti Partnerships teams joined forces for a one-day workshop in Kerikeri on Wednesday 3 December to share tools and knowledge for teaching climate change with Te Taitokerau educators.
The workshop, Te Ao Hurihuri, brought together 30 educators from early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools, and educators from organisations ranging from EcoSolutions to Mountains to Sea and Garden to Table.
Rakeesh Pinao talks about Northland Regional Council’s Climate Change Learning Programme
Participants learned about what climate change is and its impacts, experienced a groundbreaking virtual reality environmental teaching programme, and participated in focused breakout sessions.
These sessions included matauranga Māori, the Climate Change Learning Programme, Climate Club’s Ripple workshop, and the ‘Serious Games’ NIWA has developed to gamify learning about climate change and natural hazards.
Breakout sessions included mātauranga Māori, NIWA’s ‘Serious Games’ and ECE climate resources
Participants loved the learning and the opportunity to network and exchange ideas with colleagues from across Te Taitokerau.
“The amount that we’ve learnt in a short amount of time today has been huge,” says JoAnne Morningstar, deputy principal of Riverview School. “We’re coming away with ideas that are practical, things we can implement straight away, things we can put in our long-term plan.”
The workshop is already translating into practical lessons teachers are implementing at their schools.
“We’ve made contact with Maia from the Climate Club, so she’s going to come up to Whangārei Girls’ High School and work with our Switch students on the Ripple programme, so that’s really exciting for our students,” says WGHS Head of Technology and Switch, Rebecca Maunder.
For council’s Education and Enviroschools Manager, Susan Karels, the workshop was a chance to work with partners from across council, as well as external facilitators, to deliver climate expertise to inform future teaching and learning.
“We’ve been able to draw on the resources of the Enviroschools Programme and work with experts throughout the realms of climate change knowledge,” – Susan Karels, Enviroschools Regional Coordinator.
Altogether, Te Ao Hurihuri has the potential to reach over 5,000 ākonga through schools with teachers who attended the workshop.
Thanks to Toimata Foundation’s Environmental Outcomes fund for supporting this workshop.
Kaiako experienced a groundbreaking virtual reality environmental teaching programme