WaterEd

In this issue:
Our water is precious-he taonga te wai multi-media art competition (page1) Amazing water wise gardens (page 2) New newsletter features (page 3) From the library (page 3 & 4 ) Featured website: Education outside the classroom http://eotc.tki.org.nz (page 4) Green GardenerMay in the Garden (page 4 & 5).

Issue 6, March 2012

The Council newsletter on water efficiency for schools. Anne Brunt

We hope term 2 has started well for you. Welcome to an expanded newsletter that incorporates suggestions teachers have made. We hope you find it useful.

Water Education Advisor, Te piha Matauranga Wai P: 04 2992717 E: watered@kapiticoast.govt.nz

Hannah Zwartz

Green Gardener Te Kaitiaki Mra P: 04 2964700 E:greengardener@kapiticoast.govt.nz

Water is precious - he taonga te wai multi-media art competition

On the Kpiti Coast we all live near water and use it daily but most of us take water for granted.

We want this newsletter to be useful. If you have feedback, please contact us on watered@kapiticoast.govt.nz. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter please email watered@kapiticoast.govt.nz.

The Water is precious - he taonga te wai multi-media art competition aims to have young people create artworks that make people stop and think about how they value or use water. This competition is open to young people aged 12 to18 with entries closing on 11 May 2012 and the winners announced on 19 may 2012. Winning entries will be on display throughout the region. Entries can be a photograph, a painting or drawing, a print, a sculpture or a static or moving graphic image. The competition is targeted to students who are taking art or graphics at Year 9 and 10 or at NCEA levels 1 to 3 and the competition prizes reflect this. Harvey Norman Paraparaumu has donated a digital SLR camera that all art students would value and use as they develop their art portfolios. Section winners will receive vouchers to purchase art supplies. Thanks to the local colleges for leading this competition. We hope for some excellent artwork that we can display widely. Students can obtain entry forms from their local college art department or by emailing watered@kapiti.coast.govt.nz

Amazing water wise gardens

Raumati South School recently won the 2012 Water Wise Garden Competition at the Sustainable Home and Garden Show. When presenting the award judge Te Radar commented Everybody who visited the gardens will agree with the judges that the five gardens created at the show are amazing and creative and very individual. The students and groups obviously put a lot of work into their gardens and its great that they gardens are now going to be recreated back in the school or early childhood centre. Radar and fellow judges, Councillor Hilary Wooding, Julia Milne and Ben Hoyle acknowledged that creating a show garden was a huge challenge that all the groups met with energy and creative ideas. They said it was not easy to select a winner from the range of innovative and interesting gardens that each told their own story. The judges said what stood out was the energy and enthusiasm of the students from Raumati South School. The students were Raumati South Schools winning garden there to explain their garden to visitors and were knowledgeable about plants suited to local conditions. The judges added that all the gardens were appealing, but quite different. They demonstrated the concept of sustainability as they were all low cost environmental gardens that made excellent use of recycled products. All the gardens used water wisely and creatively and we were sold on pedal power. Some of the visitors to the show enjoyed pizza or scones from Raumati South Schools Pizza oven. Others were considering keeping chickens in a recycled henhouses, or building and planning a water feature where the water is captured in rain barrels and circulated by pedal power from a stationery bicycle. Some visitors left with ideas about companion planting, planting for health and well-being and being creative with unlikely recycled products.

Exploring the hand pump in the Paraparaumu Playcentre garden.

Our thanks to all those students, teachers and parents who created the gardens that were a key feature of the show.

The Otaki Kindergarten garden featuring their recycled hen house.

2 Return to contents

New newsletter features

We asked teachers what we could add to Water Ed to make it more useful for schools. Over term two we are going to incorporate the following features into the newsletter: case studies from schools that have been operating programmes that focus on water use and water conservation. In term 1 a number of primary schools completed environmental programmes that had a water conservation focus and we want to feature their achievements

activities that can stimulate student thinking. Feedback from the World Water Day activities indicates that it would be useful to include an activity or small group of focused activities that teachers can build into their learning programmes a review of fiction and non-fiction books about water use and conservation held in the Kpiti Coast District Council Library the opportunity for schools or groups to promote water related, environmental or sustainability education events or resources a featured relevant educational website.

Not every feature will be included in each newsletter but we encourage you to contribute by sending Anne the following:

activities that work well with your students information about relevant websites information about great books, especially fiction, that we can add to the reading list and review.

If your students did something exciting in term 1 that relates to water education and water conservation lets hear about it. Contact Anne and we will find an efficient and painless way to create case studies that feature your students achievements.

From the library

The library have assembled a list of book resources that relate to water use and conservation that can be borrowed using normal school loan systems. The list is attached as an appendix. Each month Rosemary McCarthy, from the library, will review some fiction and non-fiction books from this list. Here are her first reviews.

Fiction
This is the rain by Lola Schaefer, illustrated by Jane Wattenberg. Suitable for up to 6 year-olds. The book is a fun, simple way for young children to learn the basic steps in the water cycle through using rhyme, rhythm and repetition in a style similar to The house that Jack built. Bold colourful illustrations make it suitable for showing and telling in a group. Sudden drop: 24 hours to save the world and clean the bathroom [Zac Power series] by H.I. Larry. Suitable for 8-10 year-olds. Although the fast paced story and the excitement of unusual technology that moves it along quickly take up the bulk of the text the importance of a safe supply of water for everyone is always the motivation for Zac the hero. It could be used as a starting point for a wider discussion on drought, climate change and the importance of safe water storage and supply.
3 Return to contents

Non-fiction
Our world of water by Beatrice Hollyer. Suitable for 7-9 year olds. Published in association with Oxfam the book contrasts the uses of water through the very different situations of six children from six different countries. Each childs lifestyle is shown in terms of availability of water, technology, methods of storage and collection and how she/he uses water for dinks, food, washing recreation and care of pets and farm animals. Using quotes from the children themselves and their photographs in typical activities the book brings the impacts of different water resources to a personal level and thus could easily stimulate projects to discuss taking action in water conservation.

Water power by Polly Goodman. Suitable for 7-12 year-olds Using clear explanations, diagrams and photographs, this gives a basic understanding of the water cycle, the history of water power use and the different technologies available today. Interestingly, it does omit to mention the environmental impact of large dams learning could be extended to look at how the different types of technology that are being used or could be used in New Zealand.

Featured website: Education outside the classroom http://eotc.tki.org.nz

The education outside the classroom website on TKI has been rewritten and now includes practical advice for teachers developing learning programmes that include experiences that occur outside the classroom. The website links to EOTC guidelines - Bringing the Curriculum alive, It has a range of case studies including Raumati South Schools process to develop a water wise garden in 2011. Paraparaumu Colleges approach to unit standards and achievement standards relating to acquiring outdoor education skills like abseiling and kayaking and developing responsible leadership and participation is another case study. The case studies are from Year 1 to Year 13.The website contains case studies and related activities that focus on sustainability and environmental education that can be used, or adapted for use, in any water education programme.

May in the garden

Things are slowing down in the garden. Winter crops like carrots, beetroot, silver beet and the cabbage family should already be in (get them in pronto if not!) Two crops can go in now; broad beans and garlic (see next page). Otherwise, its all about compost and looking after the soil so its ready for next spring. Beds that arent being used over winter can be cleared (avoid growing a winter weed crop) and sown with green manure like lupins or mustard. Or make a compost heap on top of the bed - this means less barrowing in spring. Plant: Garlic, lettuce, silver beet, beetroot, celery. Sow: Broad beans, carrots, beetroot, miners lettuce.

4 Return to contents

Broad Beans
Broad beans are pretty bombproof and make a great beginners crop from seed. Theyre also enriching the soil by `fixing nitrogen from the air. When its time to plant spring crops, leave the roots in the ground for maximum benefit. Add a light dusting of wood ash or potash to the broad bean bed to encourage a good crop, while helping to keep away rust diseases like chocolate spot. Plant seeds 5cm deep, 15-20cm apart, in rows 30cm apart. Pinch tips out when plants are about knee high (to an adult).

Pick broad beans when young and tender for maximum appeal.

They need some support like a tepee of canes, or strong stakes at each corner of the bed around which string can be wrapped. Add levels of string as the plants grow taller. Companion plants are carrots, brassicas, celery, calendula. Leaf tips can also be pinched out and eaten over the winter (great steamed, in bean salad, or boiled and mashed into potatoes to give them a green hue). I like to pick the beans while theyre still small and sweet enough not to need skinning. Theyre lovely in salads, with pasta, or as a dip with plenty of lemon, olive oil and garlic. Or you can leave them to grow full size and dry out (they can store this way for months) and use them to make falafels.

Garlic
Planting in May means garlic should be ready before Christmas. As well as being used in cooking around the world, garlic is a strong antibiotic and antiviral. If you feel you are getting a cold, eating three cloves or so will stop it in its tracks (do this with an apple in the other hand, alternating bites, to take away the sting!) The better your soil, the better the crop. Add compost and a dusting of lime and potash. Choose the fattest, healthiest bulbs you can find spindly ones will never come to much. Space them at about 20cm apart. Poke a hole with a stick and pop in the bulb so its tip is just at the surface (make sure you get them the right way up). Mulch with a light airy mulch like pea straw. Liquid feed with seaweed once a month. Dont let the stalks completely dry off or your garlic will have separated off into cloves and wont keep so well. Instead, feel around under the soil to tell when they are fat enough to harvest.

The fattest, healthiest cloves will give the best results.

5