Wellington is in the sights of a Hikurangi School e-learning classroom as they embark on a mission to get Black Mudfish the protection they deserve.
Helen Moore’s all-girls Year 7 and 8 classroom is preparing to deliver a petition to politicians that calls for the protection of the at risk-declining species.
Helen says the students are using online video recording and sharing tool Flipgrid to build confidence in their oral speaking in preparation for their presentation to parliament later this year.
“They’ve been researching river habitats and summarising their findings in a Google Doc. Now they’re using Flipgrid to present them orally.”
Helen says Flipgrid takes away the anxiety that comes with public speaking by allowing the students to practice speaking formally and publicly in front of their Chromebooks. Submitted videos are then available for Helen and fellow students to view and comment.
“It’s been really good way to refine reading, writing and the oral language in one exercise,” says Helen.
Helen became aware of the Black Mudfish’s plight last year while on a six-month Science Teaching Leadership Programme placement at the Northland Regional Council.
“I didn’t realise we had so many fresh water fish that had no protection. Their habitats are being lost so we thought we’d raise public awareness.”
Black Mudfish are unique to New Zealand and can be found in Waikato, Auckland and Northland.
Mudfish expert Nina Pivac from Whitebait Connection has visited the class to teach students more about the Black Mudfish.
Once they have completed their research, the class will set up an online petition to take with them to Wellington later this year.
Hikurangi School is one of eight schools of the Te Puawai Cluster participating in Taitokerau Education Trust’s successful Digital Immersion Programme. Our programme is proven to raise student achievement levels by making personal-use laptops more accessible to students from lower-income households.
