Tracey Valentine, of Predator Free Bay of Plenty, with pupils at Pyes Pā School at a previous STEM in the Community event.
Tracey Valentine, of Predator Free Bay of Plenty, with pupils at Pyes Pā School at a previous STEM in the Community event.
Te Puke Primary School pupils will this week be getting lessons in science, technology, engineering and maths — but might not even realise it.
The school is the latest to have a STEM in the Community visit. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and maths.
The STEM WanaTrust has teamed up with the Bay of Plenty Conservation Alliance and Predator Free Bay of Plenty to teach about pests and predators in the New Zealand bush.
“We will be working with students from the senior syndicate, discussing native species and the pests and predators threatening them and ways we can help eradicate pests from the local environment,” says project co-ordinator Rachael Pratt.
“Janie [Stevenson] from Bay Conservation Alliance will talk to the children about the different pests that have been introduced into New Zealand — everything from rats to cats and possums and hedgehogs.”
On the face of it, it might seem there are few science, technology, engineering and maths principles involved, but Rachael says that is far from the truth.
“We talk a lot about conservation, which is obviously science, biology and ecology, and there’s also been a lot of development in traps.
“The trap the kids are making is a very basic one, but Tracey also does a talk about different traps that are around.”
Among them is a trap for inaccessible places that, after a kill, releases the dead animal and resets itself automatically, so needs checking only every six months.
“She will talk to them about trail cameras that have been set up, the live catching of feral cats and developments in trapping, because a lot of it’s happening in New Zealand in people’s garages, people are thinking about solutions to these problems.”
Pupils at Te Puke Primary School will be making rat tunnels as part of STEM in the Community this week.
The types and amount of bait to use will also be looked at.
“Someone’s had to work through those and that’s experiments, and experiments are science.”
Maths comes into play by creating graphs and pie charts to illustrate the numbers and types of animals trapped.
“It’s just about bringing it to kids who might not necessarily think they are into maths or into science.”
She says the activities are designed to illustrate that the pupils can do maths and science, even if they think they can’t.
“STEM is for everybody and it is in everything if you step back and look at it. STEM is going to be more and more important as these kids get older.”
The in-school sessions will be on Thursday and Friday this week, and after school on Friday there is the chance for anyone with an interest to head to the school to find out more.
“People can learn about what Predator Free BOP is doing, learn about Conservation Alliance and just see what the kids have been doing. It’s a way of involving the wider community as well.”
Anyone is welcome regardless of whether they have an association with the school, and they can find out how they can get a free rat trap, or what traps they can borrow for bigger animals.
