How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

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What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? Growth rates for the kowhai as well as ideal planting spacing - this worked well in a rich task that we used for DMIC maths. Of course there's lots of art around representing nature visually too.

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? It's less of a mystery to my students and they're much more curious about it.

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? [your form must be broken because I did fill this out in the email version??] We are a suburban school and while we do have parks around us, it's not the norm for the kids to go out and experience them regularly. This kit starts conversations that spark c

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“My year 7/8 class love this kit. We're still working through it. Planting the kowhai seeds early on was really good and somehow we wound up with nearly a 100% germ rate which was very exciting! We've loved checking in on them each day.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

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Neutral

Highly Motivated

What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? Oral language

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? Perhaps more of an appreciation of the effort that is required to nurture, plant etc. to create more trees in our world. The realisation that it would be easier, to just not chop them down in the first place.

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? We try to teach about sustainability, but its important to come back to the basics, such as nature and its own resources.

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“I think the Nature Spaces kit was a great idea, it was unfortunate in the timing of NZ going into lockdown. However, all was not lost. The afternoon we found out we would not be returning the following day, we had just one hour with the students to prepare them for what learning was going to be looking like for them. In that time, we handed out the kowhai seedling kits for the students to take home, prepare and nurture (for however long necessary!) During our class 'Google Meets' we would show our seedling growth progressions. Some made it. Some didn't it. We are now nurturing them further at school with the intention of planting when they are stronger.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? Maths - stats and graphing

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? A lot of motivation to continue to monitor the area and have urban pest control

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? practical learning experiences outside - my group love being active

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“This kit was easy to access and use for my independent Year Sixes! We have a native garden at school that we accessed and looked closely at that - the things we miss! The practical elements of this kit were great - the tracking tunnel and chew cards were easy to make independently and place around the garden area. We didn't do much in the way of poetry as the kids were excited to do practical learning.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? We complete reading around moon phases, pests and native wildlife.

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? The students began to appreciate their space at space and also their nature spaces at home.

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? All students were able to connect with nature in some way even during lockdown home learning.

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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Very Openly

How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“There were elements of this kit that the students really enjoyed, they loved learning about the kowhai seeds and seeing them grow. They also enjoyed spending time in there nature space and surveying what they could find, we used this element during home-learning due to lockdown. The students have throughly enjoyed tracking in their own nature spaces and identifying pests has fitted in well with our programme with the forest bridge trust.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? Started to read and research about nature and looked into bugs too.

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? They enjoy being in nature a lot more. As our first trip to our nature space they came back and were washing the leaves and sticks because they were dirty. Now they are comfortable to explore nature and learn more about it too.

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? Students learnt what plants need to grow.

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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Very Openly

How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“This kit really helped my kids to understand more about nature. They took care of their nature space and were engaged with their learning.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The kids in Room 5 at Motueka South School really loved choosing their favourite nature space to investigate, collecting samples and writing their Listening Poem. The kowhai seed planting was a favourite. The kids investigated what plants need to grow and challenged themselves to design and build greenhouses to nurture their seeds ... which have germinated. They were inspired to discover and collect kowhai seed pods from around the school grounds too. Our plant sitters have taken the pots home for the holidays and we are excited to see how much has changed when we return to school for Term 3. Our moon observations were hampered by bad weather, all part of nature too. The task of noticing simple things in nature was a perfect activity for lockdown and the children who participated really enjoyed this too. Thank you DoC for putting this kit together.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“My students have loved this kit, from finding places of hidden beauty in the school, to choosing a space needing beatifying and finally to discovering about kōwhai seeds and how to encourage them to grow. We are continuing this into Term 3, as our seedlings took longer than a month to show above the soil, and we decided spring would be easier to look forward to with new life in the classroom!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

How motivated are your students to take care of their local environment after this kit?

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

What cross curricular learning opportunities arose from using Nature as the context? Art, Writing, Reading

How were your students' happiness levels improved when being in nature?

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Very Improved

How engaged were your students with their senses during this kit?

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Highly Engaged

How has the kit impacted you and your students feelings toward nature? The students are much more aware of their local environment and how important it is that we all do our bit to improve and preserve it. There are children and families talking about setting up local traplines now as well as getting involved in local groups

What were the benefits of using Nature as a context for learning? The children enjoy getting out and about, and doing hands on activities. This was also knowledge they could take home so we received a lot of positive feedback from parents about their children's engagement in this learning.

How openly did students discuss the beauty of nature after taking part in this kit?

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How effective was this kit in increasing students' sense of place?

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“We received this kit just before lockdown so I adapted it to be used by the children during lockdown. Each child found a space within their bubble and undertook observations of the flora and fauna. They then created their own Nature Journal and, where necessary, came up with a plan to deal with any problems they identified, e.g. invasive weeds. The children were also encouraged to engage with the DOC Kiwi Guardians activities and I know a lot are patiently waiting for their medals to arrive. Some activities they completed included Curious Camper, Manu Toa, Lounge Lizard, Weed Warrior, Create a Nature Journal and, of course, grow a seed (they had three opportunities for this - a sunflower at school, a popcorn kernel at home and our kowhai seeds from the kit). Since returning to school we have been participating in the CatchIT programme run by the Forest Bridge Trust where the students learn about pests, their impact on local flora and fauna, survey pests in their backyard using a tracking tunnel, then undertake a trapping operation at home using rat traps and DOC200's provided by the Forest Bridge Trust. We were also lucky in Term 2 to have Grass Esposti of Beetopia come in and teach the students all about bees and pollination. I have received positive feedback from the students and parents about this kit and adapted programme as entire families have engaged in the activities, it has involved a lot of hands on exploration, it has engaged well with experts in our local community and the students have learned skills they can continue to apply. Thanks DOC and School Kit!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Nature Spaces 20 Reviews