Biodiversity was made possible by lockdowns. You’ll recall the stories about dolphins returning to the canals of Venice, etc. People walked outside in parks, less cars and less pollution. Birds came into the city.
It was not so favorable for the Environment Business.
Zealandia: Wellington’s most impressive restoration center; 225 hectares pure gold with endangered species returning the city. The Falcons are smacking homing Pigeons out the air, Kaka all around the place tui in large numbers
Zealandia depends on visitors. THEY ARE launching an appeal to go and see the place, absorb Nature, and experience Aotearoa’s past.
Zealandia can be used as an INSPIRATIONAL tool for EDUCATION.!
Schools that do a lot in environmental education outside of the classroom are also experiencing reduced parental contributions during the pandemic years. My current job-area is teacher PLD (Professional Learning Development). I’m trying to get all teachers to work with the Natural Resources found in schools, as well as the whole curriculum.
There are many hugely successful players (Look them all up! These players include: BLAKE, Sir Peter Blake Trust, Enviroschools and Treemendous (Mazda Foundation), Garden-to-Table. Field Based STEM, Toimata Foundation and many others.
These companies and initiatives often sponsor these organizations and initiatives and are supported by Ministries (Education, Environment, and DoC).
However, it may be worthwhile to contact your local school’s principal or Science team to discuss how you can help improve the quality of learning.
Learning outside is particularly useful in Covid times because of the reduced chance of transmission.
I am a big fan of Nature-Nerdness and the raptors at Bird of Prey Trust Wingspan Rotorua. https://www.wingspan.co.nz/
You can see Falcons hunting and flying; they also train kahu; they even support the Barn Owl, a New Zealand Native bird that is now well established in Northland.
Covid saw huge income losses at Wingspan, especially as they began planning to build an education center.
One way they fund-raise for this is by selling raptor raptor pellets to teachers who want to do something new in the biological classroom. Raptors eat meat with bones, fur and feathers. They then regurgitate the indigestible material as a pellet. To identify the food consumed by birds, the pellets can be separated and bones and other materials can identified in the classroom.
Wingspan sent me an excellent packet of barn-owl pellets. I am giving it away to five teachers from NZ who contact my with the best reasons why they would like one.
Address: [email protected]Don’t forget your name, school name, and address
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