news

Equipping ākonga with knowledge and hope

Our nui for Noema highlights the upcoming webinar serie s on climate change. Dual themes include building basic science understanding and building student agency.

Climate change – building scientific literacy, agency and hope

Climate change is recognised as the most important challenge that our world faces. Education is a critical agent in building the action competence required to face this challenge. As educators, we play a pivotal role in equipping our students with the knowledge and tools to comprehend and address this complex socio-ecological challenge.

Young people with climate protest banner in Wellington, NZ

Taking action for climate justice

Students across Aotearoa New Zealand organised a series of school strikes and protest marches. These Wellington students hold a banner that reads “We demand climate justice”.

Rights: David Tong, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Science Learning Hub, in collaboration with the New Zealand Association of Science Educators (NZASE) and guest expert Associate Professor Chris Eames, is offering three webinars.

The first in the series will focus on the role of key greenhouse gases and their effects on the climate . We’ll provide cross-curricular, multimedia resources to help deepen scientific understanding.

Date: 19 November, 4:00–4:45 pm

Register

The additional webinars explore pedagogical approaches that support climate change education at primary and secondary school levels. These webinars have a dual focus – to aid development of teaching and learning experiences that meet the needs of your class , and the promotion of student wellbeing, hope and agency.

Date: 27 November, 4:00–4:45 pm

Register

Exploring climate change education in primary schools  climate changeExploring climate change education in primary schools 

Date: 28 November, 4:00–4:45 pm

Register

We understand this is a busy time of year for teachers – remember that our webinars are recorded and available for viewing at your convenience.

Resources to support learning about climate change

We’ve a wealth of resources! A good place to start is with the pedagogical articles Climate change – classroom competencies and Climate change – a wicked problem for classroom inquiry. Climate change – planning pathways curates many of our science and pūtaiao resources in one handy location.

Planning pathways using climate change resources

This interactive groups Hub resources into key science and teaching concepts. The article Climate change resources – planning pathways provides pedagogical advice and links to the New Zealand Curriculum. Click on the labels for links to supporting articles, media and student activities.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

ClimateViz is our new citizen science project. Build science literacy and student agency by extracting information from climate graphics to help combat misinformation and support scientific communication.

New content

Continuing with an environmental theme, see what else is new on the Hub.

Our Air 2024 – we’ve again partnered with the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ to communicate key messages about the state of our environment. Read about air quality and why it matters.

Diagram of the raupō plants adaptations

Raupō adaptations

Raupō has several adaptations that allow it to grow on disturbed land. 

Diagram from: Li X, Newnham R, Vandergoes MJ, van den Bos V, Howarth JD, Rees A, et al. (2024) Insights into the natural and cultural history of Typha orientalis (Raupō) in Aotearoa New Zealand. PLOS Water 3 (9): e0000240. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000240

Rights: © 2024 Li et al. CC BY 4.0

Add these to your mātauranga Māori resource kete – or create your own collection!

November conferences and events

Did you know that we have an events section? If you are attending either the SCANZ 2024 conference or ChemEd BioLive 2024 this month, keep an eye out for Greta and Andrea – two of the faces behind the Hub’s endeavour to make science research accessible and to support teachers, students and wider communities to engage and deepen their understanding of science and science education.

Don’t forget World Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) week begins on 18 November – and yes, we’ve lots of resources to support this important week!

Follow us 

We offer added value through our social media. Contact us about creating collections or boards tailored to your needs. We can help foster connections between the education and science communities.

Your feedback

We hope you enjoy using the Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao in your teaching and would love to hear from you. Your comments, ideas and feedback can be emailed to enquiries@sciencelearn.org.nz.

Noho ora mai

Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao

See all news
Published: 6 November 2024,Updated: