Meet the Locals: A classroom resource for teachers
Mike Tapp
Nic Vallance
Meet the Locals 1
A classroom resource for teachers
Meet the Locals 1 is a series of four-minute
mini-documentaries filmed in partnership with TVNZ and the
Department of Conservation.
As teaching resources they match the vision for our young people as
in the New Zealand Curriculum. You'll meet creative, energetic and
enterprising people actively contributing to the well being of New
Zealand.
The videos highlight the inspiring work of local communities,
individuals and DOC staff as they strive to protect and enhance New
Zealand's natural heritage. We chose a selection and linked
teaching and learning activities to them.
You'll find science units with a focus on our unique reptiles,
insects, birds and sand dune environment. We study our
volcanoes and the way they've influenced our biodiversity and
there's a Social Studies unit that explores the reasons for
maintaining treasures from the past.
The units were written for Years 7 to 9 but teachers of younger or
older students can easily adapt them and find them useful. They'll
stand alone or can be incorporated into wider units to match your
themes.
Web links to the Meet The Locals videos are supplied throughout
the units - just click on the
links!
You'll find learning tools too designed to connect new knowledge
and skills to practical situations. Students will work in authentic
contexts using parts of actual recovery plans used by DOC and other
groups out in the field. This will add relevance and purpose to
what they do. A click on the
links will bring
you to the learning tools and other useful websites.
Meet the video presenter
Nic Vallance presents each Meet the Locals video. She's been
passionate about New Zealand's wildlife and wild places for as long
as she can remember and after gaining a zoology degree she studied
penguin chicks on the Antarctic Peninsula, bottlenose dolphins in
Fiordland and was a Hector's dolphin swimming guide on Banks
Peninsula.
Nic started her career at the DOC as the journalist in Otago and
right now she's DOC's national media advisor and enjoys telling New
Zealanders all about the special wildlife and wild places that
belong to them.
Meet the resource writer
Mike Tapp has been a teacher, principal, Newspapers in Education
manager and an educational resource writer for all sorts of
organisations. He's worked with teachers and children on research
and professional development contracts for the Ministry of
Education and right now he's a Community Relations Ranger for DOC
Taranaki.
Mike hasn't swum with dolphins but he has mountain
biked through huge swarms of sandflies, more than once.
The photos you see in the units are mostly from the Department of
Conservation. Mike took the ones of lizard friendly gardens and
weta homes and the wily looking cat is Jazz. After 16 years of
patient teaching she focuses purely on rats, mice and sleeping in
the sun.
The units
A bird in the
hand
Explores the features of some of our most endangered birds and
the recovery programmes, techniques and technology that is helping
them out. We focus on the takahe, kakapo, Chatham Island black
robin, kokako and Northern Royal albatross.
The Big Friendly Giants - The
Giant Weta
Find out why these weta have survived so long and explore the
factors leading to their demise. Students will see why the weta is
so unique, they'll assess recovery plans and find out how to
improve living conditions for weta in their own backyard.
The
reptiles
Explore the habitats of our rare McRaes Flat skink, Chevron skink,
Duvaucel's gecko and Jewelled gecko and see how they have responded
to environmental changes. Decide if their adaptive features are
helping or hindering the lizards' survival and explore the
consequences of rats on our pest free islands. Students look at the
Head Start programme for the tuatara and assess and make
suggestions for the recovery programme.
They're oldies but
goodies
We explore the reasons for retaining and maintaining treasures from
the past with a look at four very unique historic sites. We delve
into the gold mining and kauri logging days and head back in time
to when New Zealanders planned defences for possible invasion.
Students study technological needs and achievements from another
era, look for problems and offer possible solutions.
Shake, rattle and
roll
We focus on New Zealand's volcanic activity, exploring
specific volcanoes like Tarawera, White Island and Rangitoto.
Students consider the consequences from their eruptions and the
effect on local biodiversity. The look at eco tourism too and
assess the effects on people and the environment.
Our own gold coast
This little unit explores the importance of sand dunes for the
critters and plants that live in and around them. We find out about
the impact of introduced species on our coastline and investigate
the reasons for their introduction. We focus on pingao or pikao -
the golden sand sedge and explore the largest coastal plant
protection programme in the Southern hemisphere at Mason Bay in
Stewart Island.
Brought to you in partnership with
