From One Zoo: Ohakune Visit

Who Am I?

I am a Primary Science Teacher Fellow. The Teacher Fellowships are funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. The Fellowships are designed to support the effective teaching of science in primary and intermediate schools.

Teacher Fellows are placed in a science organisation for two terms to gain an appreciation of the Nature of Science - doing science work in a 'real life' setting. I am lucky enough to be hosted by Wellington Zoo.

To find out more about the Teacher Fellowships or see what other teachers are doing click the links in the side bar.

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Ohakune Visit - Whio

Last week I went to visit my friend Kathy in Ohakune. She is also a Primary Science Teacher Fellow and is working with the Department of Conservation and the Ngati Rangi Trust. Her main project is creating an app that will allow people in her area to record sightings of birds and water creatures.

The birds she is interested in are the kereru, whio (blue duck) and karearea (NZ Falcon). The water creatures are koura, tuna (long-finned eel) and kākahi (freshwater mussel).

While there we went on a whio hunt - trying to get my first sighting of a blue duck in the wild. We first tried the Tongariro River but no luck, though we did see a shining cuckoo! Then we tried some smaller rivers on our way back to Ohakune. Finally we were successful on the Whakapapa River.