What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? Reading journal stories that link - The Water Highway etc Maths link - measurement, importance of accuracy and using standardised units etc.

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? I would like to organise a trip to a freshwater stream so we can conduct all of the tests. This will be a major undertaking however, requiring transport, parent help, RAMS etc.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? Through exploration of our pepeha and discussion of the importance of rivers, lakes, oceans etc. Discussions of kia moana and kai awa and the impact of water on other sources of kai.

“The kit was a fantastic resource and supported students to develop their understanding of monitoring the health of fresh-waterways. We had rich discussions about the importance of water for people, flora and fauna and maintaining healthy waterways. However, we really struggled to find a body of water that would be suitable for the investigation. The only body of water we could access was a stagnant man-made pond at the local golf course. It meets the criteria given on the kit sign up information (fresh water more than 10 metres long) but we were not able to conduct many of the investigations in a meaningful way. It would have been helpful if the initial information sent out to teachers had made clear that we would need to access a stream (not just a body of water 10 metres long). If I had known this I would not have signed up for this particular kit as we do not have easy access to a flowing body of freshwater appropriate for the investigation anywhere close to our school.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? We were starting off statistics in Maths, so this kit tied in perfectly when we wanted to find the mean, mode and median. We also are on the strand , The Living World in Science. In literacy, many students developed their scientific jargon and use of dict

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? Collaborating and working as a team, this kit allowed my students to develop social skills as well. The older students used this opportunity to work on their leadership and organisational skills.From the results, we were able to draw different types of gr

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? My students were surprised to find living things in the stream. They were also taken aback by the litter that they found. The conversations that started about how pollution may affect the lives of tiny organisms that they never knew existed in the water w

“It was evident that this kit was loved by both myself and my students. They took so much away from this experience. One of the favourites were classifying the different species that they had found. This stimulated many conversations between students of different ages which was fantastic! Every student was engaged, even the ones that forgot their gumboots! Each student was able to explore, analyse, record and draw conclusions. The resources and equipment in the kit were simple to understand and use. The cards with each test on them were amazing, this gave my students an opportunity to explore new vocabulary before setting off to do the actual testing. They each had a printout of the tests and were able to follow the instructions easily.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? Maths (measuring), water cycles (science), key competencies (thinking, managing self, relating to others).

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? We would like to test a different creek (perhaps a worse off one) as ours was quite small and it was difficult to carry out some of the tests. We would like to measure poor water quality to gain an understanding of the inverse experience.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? We use the local harbour to swim in. Our local streams (Styles Creek and Smith's Creek) run into the harbour where our kids and community swim. We are self-designated Kaitiaki of this waterway and it gave the students a deeper understanding of having an a

“What an excellent piece of kit. We have a Schmack Kit already but this is very difficult for younger students to use. The kit was well-made, and teh resources were extremely easy to follow.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? We were able to use integrated inquiry - we read about Papatuanuku and Ranginui, we were able to read about the importance of Kapiti Island (our local island) and connect with why and how water is important to both animals and plants. We created graphs an

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? Working with the COuncil to be accountable and responsible for the stream in Kaitawa Park - this would be a great community project that would enable the students (who live in the area) connection and ownership/responsibility of a taonga in their space.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? We were able to connect with the fact that using a stream is not a good place to use as a toilet!!! But also recognise that this stream in our backyard is a place that people can get food (eels and plants) from. We were also able to really understand the

“Hi there Room 11 loved the water testing kit. We spend a lot of our in school and out of school time at a local park where there is quite a large stream that runs through - Kaitwaw Park. This testing enabled us to look at the quality of the water and we were able to ideas around water quality and the life in the streams as a few of the students love to play and fish in the water. It meant that we became quite focused on taking rubbish away from the stream and we were also able to look at the journey of the stream as it heads out to our moana. Some of our students were somewhat concerned that, because they may have peed in the water previously, that this would show up in testing results :-)”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? Significance for Maori Report writing in literacy

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? Kits aimed at more environmental issues in NZ

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? The link between maori and the land was discussed in our class as part of this unit

“Excellent kit which was very engaging”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? The most significant cross-curricular link was in analysing the data - I don't think we've spent enough time on statistics this year! The students did enjoy the measurement olympics for practising measuring accurately.

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? It would be great to have followed this up with an action plan for our local stream environment but we ran out of time. It was good to see the students picking rubbish out of the section of stream that we were working in.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? Having just finished working on our mihi, this was very relevant and we had a robust discussion about the importance of water as a food source and transport medium to early maori.

“The kit was great for our year 7/8 classes. The links were worthwhile and helped to give context to the kits, particularly after the amount of media coverage regarding water quality in recent years. The equipment to complete the sampling was sufficient although we had to chase several marker flags that escaped downstream! (user error) We did a dry run of the stream visit in the classroom, chalking a stream on the carpet. This proved a good opportunity to explore the tools and methods required. We really enjoyed the kit, although would have enjoyed it more in summer :)”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? Maths

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? Would like to be able to visit our local river more regularly if time wasn't an issue.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? Great discussion around this topic with the kids. They really got in to researching this and talking about it with their families.

“Great kit, there was a lot involved but what we did the kids really loved it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

What cross curricular learning came about as a result of this kit? We understood concepts in maths, literacy, social sciences, science and physical education.

How successful was this kit in promoting scientific thinking?

Not Successful At All

Neutral

Very Successful

How effective was this kit in raising your students awareness of the importance of water health?

Not Effective At All

Neutral

Very Effective

What opportunities have arisen for future learning from this kit? Working with Horizons Council to understand what we can do in the communtiy to support the development around the river and understanding ways we can help to look after our awa.

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

Not Motivated at All

Neutral

Highly Motivated

In what ways did this kit develop understanding of the cultural significance of water in Te Ao Māori? We learnt about the connections between the awa and the Rangitāne Iwi. We discussed the kupu around the awa and looked at the māori translations for organisms in the river.

“This kit was a great kit to get out kids out and about and understanding the water around us. They enjoyed seeing what lives in our awa. The maths involved with this kit was relevant and authentic. It made my students understand how lucky we are to have a clean awa and learn how we can look after it for future generations.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Water Quality Testing 20 Reviews