In this recorded professional learning session, Shanthie Walker from DOC and Lyn Rogers explore why the whio/blue duck is so important to New Zealand. They use the Department of Conservation Whio Forever resource to model a process of student inquiry into conservation.
This session will be valuable for both primary and secondary school teachers.
Watching the recorded webinar creates an opportunity to engage with some ideas and activities from the Science Learning Hub and the Department of Conservation Whio Forever resource. Lyn and Shanthie discuss how these ideas can be used to foster students’ inquiry skills.
Good informative knowledge you have shared and great supportive ideas for how to approach it in the classroom.
Teacher
The PowerPoint and recorded webinar provide ideas and information that will support teachers of any year level to:
- enhance students’ understanding about conservation education
- engage students in inquiry
- help develop students’ science capabilities.
Watch the video (above) of this professional development session (we recommend downloading it) and also see below the index and the PowerPoint presentation.
| Topic
| PowerPoint slide number(s) | Video timecode |
| Introducing the Science Learning Hub (SLH) and presenters and Index | 1–2 | 00:12 |
| Webinar purpose | 3–4 | 00:29 |
| DOC education strategy and conservation kids | 5–6 | 01:39 |
| What do we already know about whio? – eliciting prior knowledge | 7–8 | 02:53 |
| Whio – why all the fuss? | 9 | 04:37 |
| Genesis and DOC relationship | 10 | 06:36 |
| Whio bingo – eliciting prior knowledge | 11–12 | 05:20 |
| Exploring the resources and what underpins them – Māori perspectives, conservation and environmental education for sustainability | 13–16 | 18:04 |
| Diving into inquiry | 17–20 | 22:03 |
| What next? – asking questions | 21–21 | 29:42 |
| What next? – Useful links | 23 | 30:44 |
| Thanks | 24 | 32:20 |
Nature of science
This session models the beginning of a student inquiry. This inquiry model leads students to work like scientists by applying their learning to conservation action. This links to both the communicating in science strand and the participating and contributing strand of the nature of science in the New Zealand Curriculum.
Related content
Examples of related articles on the Science Learning Hub include Who’s who in the duck world?, Introducing New Zealand ducks, Fantastic whio feathers, Conserving native birds – introduction and Conserving native birds – writer’s insight.
There are also several teacher PLD sessions related to this topic: Why learn about whio?, Inquiry outside the classroom, Taking action for conservation, Bird conservation and literacy and SLH and conservation.
Activity ideas
Some activities on the Science Learning Hub related to whio and other New Zealand ducks that you may wish to explore include Whio feathers – what are they for?, Which duck is which?, Mixing and matching ducks, Duck dominoes, Ethics in bird conservation, Eliciting prior knowledge and Ethics in conservation science.
The activity included in this webinar is Eliciting prior knowledge, which brings out students’ prior knowledge.
Acknowledgement
The Whio Forever resource has been created in partnership between the Department of Conservation and Genesis Energy.
Useful links
The Whio Forever project, created in partnership between the Department of Conservation and Genesis Energy, has developed a range of resources to support student inquiry about whio. There are also several other videos and articles you could look at to learn more about whio, for example, Whio (blue duck) recovery and Remote Blue Duck Station is haven for whio, kiwi and bats.
Posters are a great way of accessing small chunks of information in a very visual way. These Facts about the whio posters produced by DOC are in both English and Te reo Māori and provide a great starting point for finding out more about one of our most unique endemic birds.
