Workshops with Ruud
A full day of activity was held on Sunday 15 May 2016. In the morning a teacher’s workshop was held with Ruud giving a presentation to 30 teachers on all the different ways the environment could be brought into many curriculum subjects - art, literacy, technology, maths and stats, science, chemistry, culture, history. He emphasised the vital need to re-connect children with nature and then demonstrated how to do it – classroom tuition, outside demonstrations, as well as using his collection of unusual “critters”. Ruud also promoted the “Naturewatch” website http://naturewatch.org.nz/ as a place to get answers on species you find and also a place to record the finds for your school site, garden or reserve.
In the afternoon a group of over 20 Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) children enjoyed a slide show of insects and their useful roles for pollination, recycling, food and many other purposes! Then, seeing some unusual and large insects close-up – giant centipede, giant weta, praying mantis, katydid (bush cricket), spiders and beetles. This, along with his display case with numerous insect examples were a big hit with the fascinated children. A walk outside produced some very interesting insect facts and some new information (even for Ruud) – mites and ladybirds inside a nursery spider web. It just shows you can discover something new every time you go out and look – discovery learning at its best! Thanks Bronwyn for organising this event.
Thanks to Ruud for making time in his extremely busy schedule to visit us, for his passion and energy – he even did his radio show at 7.30am from our lounge! And thanks to Mark Oster for helping to organise the event and for giving up a Sunday to help.
Posted: 15 May 2016