This collection supports the House of Science Forest Health kit – but it is also useful for anyone interested in kauri dieback and myrtle rust.

Activity 1: Get to know a tree

Part A: Meet and greet

Learning Objectives (levels 1-4)

Students explore a tree and the community of living things in, on, under and around it.

Part B: How tall?

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students calculate the height of a tree.

This article curates bilingual and te reo Māori resources in a form accessible to students and teachers with limited prior knowledge relating to plant identification and biology.

This article curates numerous resources including activities and PLD webinars. It also has an interactive that groups resources into planning topics and/or big science ideas.

Activity 2: What is a forest?

Learning Objectives (levels 1-4)

Students use their sense of hearing to explore the soundscape of healthy New Zealand forests.

Activity 3: Seeing Sound

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students explore the relationship between vibration and sound.

Although this activity uses the sea and seashore as the context for creating a soundscape, the background notes, instructions and discussion questions will still be of value.

This Building Science Concepts article and interactive focuses on sound - how it moves and how we hear it.

Activity 4: Forest Giants

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students visualise, compare, and contrast the dimensions of New Zealand’s largest kauri tree.

Activity 5: Tree Time

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students understand that trees in forests store information about their past and the environment in which they grew.

This article uses Tāne Mahuta and the samaúma to explore indigenous connections between forest giants, people and indigenous knowledge.

Activity 6: Under attack

Part A: Kauri Dieback

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students model actions that can be undertaken to protect kauri by reducing the spread of the kauri dieback pathogen.

Part B: Myrtle Rust

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students model the spread of myrtle rust spores.

Scientific findings combined with the knowledge of mātauranga Māori are vital to informing decisions on how to combat the spread of the disease. It also has actions we can take to avoid the spread including Kauri Rescue.

This Connected article provides information about the kauri dieback disease cycle and how it spreads. It also explains how mātauranga Māori and rongoā may provide insight on how to protect kauri from the deadly spores.

This article explains the origins of the disease, the symptoms, and approaches Aotearoa New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries is using to understand and manage myrtle rust.

Nature of Science

This interactive provides a chronology of events and how science organisations have worked together to monitor and respond to myrtle rust.

Australian scientists are investigating a biotechnology tool called RNA interference as a potential means of combating myrtle rust.

The Myrtle Rust Reporter is a citizen science project using iNaturalist to log sightings of the disease.

Activity 7: Seed Stuff

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students understand the structure and function of seeds.

Activity 8: Seed Storage and Seed Banking

Learning Objectives (levels 2-4)

Students understand that seed banking is the practice of storing viable seeds for future use.