Year 6 Put Their Research Skills Into Action in the Estuary

 Today, Year 6 learnt about endemic, native, introduced and pest species. We learnt with the Science Learning Hub and then reviewed with a Kahoot, Ms Daniel made using the animals that live in the Wakaagranga Creek. We know the species in our estuary as in 2023 our Eco Warriors went on a trip there.  They observed the animals and then did DNA testing.  Here's the link to the blog post we made at the time : https://wakaenviro.blogspot.com/search?q=edna

Then it was time to put our research skills into action.  We each chose one estuarine species to read about and summarise into posters.  We are going to share our findings on the Piwakawaka windows. We are especially interested in how we can protect these animals. Check out our  beautiful posters HERE and HERE

Year Six Explore our Estuary Animals

 Back in December 2023 our Pestfree Cadets visited our local estuary and took dna samples to see what lives there.  Check out our field trip here - https://wakaenviro.blogspot.com/search?q=edna

The Wilderlab got back to us with the results: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wilderlab.openwaters/reports/a5fbe79b5ac54637.html

We were very excited about the banded kokopu and short finned eel. We wanted to share what we've learnt  about the importance of estuaries and the endemic and native animals that live there.

After exploring the difference between endemic, native and introduced we broke into groups and adopted an estuary animal  from the testing and field trip observation to research and champion.

We have contacted the Wilderlab to see if they will donated some kits so we can repeating out testing.

Our Estuary Monitoring Trip with Frazer, Cate & Kylee

More photos Estuary Trip 12/12/23

Today the Pestfree Cadets were lucky enough to visit the Wakaaranga Creek with Frazer, Cate and Kylee - experts from Sustainable Schools. We wanted to gather more information about what lives at our local estuary.

Here is a our survey data:

12/12/23

9:15am - 10:15am

Wakaaranga Creek by the Ropello Entrance

Cloudy & windy

Birds we observed:

pukeko

pied shag

tui

sparrow

swallow

white faced heron

black backed gull

seagull

blackbirds

duck

starling

piwakawaka

tern

Sadly no kingfishers, godwits or oyster catchers

Are pests, human activity or pets a factor?

We noticed what nature was telling us.

The mangroves were not there when the creek was used as the resting place of the canoe.  We wondered why they are there now.

The pohutukawas were in flower and the puriri were covered in berries.

We have taken a water sample so that it can be EDNA tested.  This will tell us what is living in our estuary. When creatures move through the environment they leave traces of their DNA. Scientists will analyse our sample and send us the results.  We can add that to our estuary inquiry.

This trip will help inform our inquiry and actions in 2024.

Thank you for an amazing trip Cate, Kylee, and Frazer.