Useful websites
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.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/publications/getting-involved/students-and-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 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
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
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
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
Reduce your Rubbish
This site has practical advice for reducing the amount of rubbish you produce. It includes shopping tips (so you have less rubbish to dispose of), recycling advice and information on composting.
www.reducerubbish.govt.nz
STARfish
Online resources for teachers and students on New Zealand's fisheries and fisheries management.
www.starfish.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