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Working with youth

We recognise the importance of raising awareness and understanding among young people and involving them in conservation focused activities in our area. Their enthusiasm and passion for the natural world are encouraging. Our focus is on supporting teachers provide hands on / practical activities that are part of the Conservation experience for students.

In 2022 we worked with the Mangawhai Beach School and Mangawhai Nature School to establish a rat trapping programme, art activities and a shorebirds programme, and with the Waipu Surf Club Rookie Camp where the focus was on shorebirds and dune planting as well as trapping. In 2024 we have expanded our offerings and support and reached several more schools in the area.

Below provides details on our curriculum followed by pictures and stories of our programme in 2022. 
We have developed packages of curriculum- based activities that can be undertaken in the classroom, on the beach, in the bush and on school camps. We have people who have taught in schools with a raft of experience working with conservation and community-based volunteer groups. We are offering their expertise in the field and their understanding of how to achieve the goals you have set for the lesson or for the term.

All the offerings can be adapted to age levels and for species types upon request. These can be cherry picked to support what teachers are doing or they can become a package that is developed and fitted to the learning outcomes the teacher is aiming to provide.

Feel free to access our Teachers Hub including the overview documents and term focused Resource ketes HERE

Youth Education Social Sciences Curriculum

Resource Kete 1: Predator Control - Pest Animals 
An Introduction to Pest Species that are a Threat to our Birds.

Kete 1 is all about pest animals and contains activities and resources to run animal pest identification workshops, 5 minute bird counting and a pest trapping programmes for both school grounds and at home. This aids in students understanding that pest control is an ongoing commitment to help us reach the Predator Free 2050 goal.
Click to view the materials

Resource Kete 2: Healthy Habitat – Plant Pests
Identifying Plant Pests & Eliminating -bring back the balance.

Kete 2 is focused on pest plants that damage our native bush and gardens. Activities includes a scavenger hunt, nature walk, plant identification, planting, seed collection, propagation, identifying plant pests, waterways care and more
Click to view the materials

Resource Kete 3: Taonga needing our protection
Focus on our endemic species particularly the kiwi, bittern and tara iti … the why of conservation.

Kete 3 and recommended activities focuses on a kiwi education box, food, habitat, art based activities and suggested off campus activities.
Click to view the materials

Resource Kete 4: Sharing the Space
Our long haul native and endemic birds.

Kete 4 - migratory shorebirds connect inland New Zealand with the coast and connect New Zealand to the rest of the world. The recommended Term 4 activities include creating a flock, bird menus, bird watching and more.
Click to view the materials

Resource Kete 5: Habitats of significance in our rohe 
Estuary
Beach
Bush
Wetlands and salt marshes
Reserves give protection.

Click to view the materials

Resource Kete 6: Thinking about the bigger picture.
Protecting the flyway for long haul migrants
Sand mining
Vehicles on beaches

Click to view the materials

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New Mangawhai Youth Conservation Programme

Borne out of frequent requests from local teens wanting to get involved in conservation, The Piroa Conservation Trust, Shorebirds Trust and Tara iti golf club have joined forces to launch Mangawhai’s very own ‘Rangatahi Conservation’ programme.

The programme, which launched in July 2024 , is designed to build knowledge and experience around ecology and conservation in our local area.   With the help of volunteers, the aim is to grow this into a full year programme in 2025, able to support a larger group of teenagers.

Each session starts with a bit of learning, followed by putting those learnings into practice.
Attendees learn about the fundamentals of conservation; predator control, biodiversity monitoring, and restoration, with each session focusing on a new ecosystem like forests, coasts, or freshwater.

At the end of each session one of the attendees writes up a short story so the local community can hear first hand their experience and key learnings. To start things off we are delighted to share the story written by Joseph Knight as follows, and we hope you look forward to these stories in the coming months.

“By 9am on Thursday 18 of July 2024 everyone in the group of six had arrived at the carpark of Tara Iti Golf Club (there were a few people away sick). This is our first day of the Youth Conservation Program. It was meant to be on Wednesday, but it was postponed to Thursday because of the weather, luckily it was because Thursday was sunny and warm.

We started with a lesson inside the Golf Club. Alex (the person running the Youth Conservation Program) showed us a slideshow about conservation in New Zealand. We discussed some interesting facts about New Zealand wildlife as well.

After the lesson we went out onto the big sand dunes. On the way up we saw lots of pig tracks leading from the wetlands to the sand dunes which was not good to see. When we got to the top of the sand dune we sat at the top and listened to Alex tell us about a wildfire that had come across this area, apparently there used to be bush where the dunes now are, after the bush was destroyed by the fire the sand dunes were able to form, the ash and charcoal can still be seen if you look at some of the eroding banks by the sand dune. On the way back we looked at some middens and the black line in the bank created by the fire. I was also looking out for native plant species on the dunes on the way back. Some of the species I found are as follows…
Pseudognaphalium lanatum (a rareish native herb), Toatoa (Haloragis erecta Ssp. Erecta) a species that helps with the first stage of forest regeneration, Pingao (Ficinia spiralis) a good species for stabilising sand dunes, Knobby Clubrish (Ficinia nodosa), Shore Bindweed (Calystegia soldanella), Sea Celery (Apium prostratum Ssp. Filiforme), and Tauhinu (Ozothamnus leptophyllus) a cool plant with nice smelling flowers).
A couple of other interesting things we found on the sand dunes were whale bones, two coconuts and a Fish Poison Tree seed (Barringtonia asiatica) which must have washed up from overseas.

Once we got back from the sand dunes we did another lesson, this time it was on types of traps for pests in NZ and how to use them.

By the time the second lesson had finished we had just under an hour to do some trapping, the goal was to check and refresh some of the traps in the wetland, as we were checking the traps we came across a female New Zealand Mantis (Orthodera novaezealandiae) this species is now pretty rare because of the South African Mantis (Miomantis caffra) overtaking it’s habitat, not much later after that we came across a small pond from which a spooked bittern flew away from.
We finished the traps leaving just enough time for us to get back to the carpark by 1pm, unfortunately none of the traps had caught anything.

Going forward we will be doing a session with the Youth Conservation Program on the third Wednesday of each month for the rest of the year.”
 

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Overall winner and first place for age group 8 - 10.
 Moeavai Finan 

2024 Mangawhai Beach School World Environment Day Photography Competition

In July 2023 MBS held its annual conservation photographic competition with local wildlife photographer Aaron Skelton judging the competition again this year and jeepers did he have a hard job choosing the placegetters.
The overall supreme award was won by 9 year old Moeavai Finan who took a shot of a water drop on a leaf - a great image, nicely framed drawing the eye to the big water drop so it’s like looking into a magnifying glass. “The leaf is nice and sharp inside the water drop and has a nice warmth to the image." commented Aaron. Congratulations Moeavai who won both the Category Age 8 – 10 and the supreme award for the second year running.
2nd place for the Age 8 – 10 category went to Leo Whitaker who took a great sharp shot of a flower and a bee, and 3rd Place was awarded to Lily-Mae Holtzhausen with a wonderful shot of a sea anemone at our local beach.

In the age 11+ category 1st place went to Poppie Sievers who took a brilliant shot of an Eagle Ray. Aarons comments for Poppy …."Nice clear image well framed and the blurred background draws the eye to the subject much more. Well done."
2nd place was given to Michael Winter who took a shot of an awesome looking flower which is very bright and well centered. 3rd Place went to Bailee Dennis taking a picture at home of a lily in a fish pond.

In the age 5-7 category 1st place was awarded to Harper McLaren with a magnificent shot of a marigold. "A lovely colourful image with nice sharp water drops on the pedals well done." said Aaron.
2nd Place went to Kassidy Cato of a flower and caterpillar, and 3rd place was Lachlan Pope with a shot of a of a daisy.

Big thanks also to the sponsors of the prizes (Susan Steedman and PCT) including the overall prize which is Moeavais winner photo printed on to canvas!
The annual MBS World Environment Day Photography Competition is coordinated by Jackie Fanning (MBS classroom teacher and Enviro Unit Leader). It is our 8th annual competition - all with themes about our environment.
Well done MBS! Congratulations to all those who entered the '2024 MBS World Environment Day Photography Competition - Nature Close Up'.

Age 11 - 12
Winner - Poppy Sievers 
Age 11 - 12
2nd place - Michael Winter 
Age 11 - 12
3rd place - Bailee Dennis
Age 8 -10
Winner - Moeavai Finan
Age 8 -10
2nd place - Leo Whitaker
Age 8 -10
3rd place - Lily-Mae Holtzhausen
Age 5 - 7
Winner - Harper McLaren

Age 5 - 7
2nd place- Kassidy Cato
Age 5 - 7
3rd place - Lachlan Pope
Creating the Flock around Mangawhai

As an acknowledgement of how keen the students at both the Mangawhai Beach School and the Mangawhai Nature School were to trap predators to protect our birds, PBL supplied them with traps to use in their own backyards. This coincided with the return of New Zealand’s long-haul native flock.

As part of their conservation programme the students then learnt about how migratory shorebirds connect inland New Zealand with the coast. Many of our endemic birds migrate from their winter habitat to other places in New Zealand. Examples of this are the tiny Ngutuparore/Wrybill and the much larger Tōrea/South Island Pied Oystercatchers that migrate annually between New Zealand’s main islands, breeding in South Island riverbeds and farmland and wintering on the North Island’s coasts. These are our endemic birds. Tara Iti migrates from coast to coast and is here on our beaches to breed over summer.

Our native long-haul migratory birds connect New Zealand to the rest of the world; they are capable of amazing feats of endurance. An example of this is the Kuaka or Bar-tailed Godwit 4BBRW that created a record by staying in the air for 11 days straight, in its effort to get to its feeding grounds thousands of kilometres from its breeding grounds in Alaska.

Inspired to protect our birds, students at both schools have painted their own ‘Flock'. The 'Flock' is a creative and fun project to spread the word about our amazing migratory shorebirds and what we can to do to ensure their protection. To see the students’ enthusiasm and passion for the natural world is encouraging. This activity has been developed by the Miranda Shorebird Centre.

None of it would have been possible without the amazing volunteer work by Neville from the Waipu Menz Shed who made all the wooden bird cut-outs for the students to paint. What a legend!

Special thanks to Glenys from Mangawhai About Tern. Glenys took on the task of managing the project. She was joined by Jane Vaughan from Mangawhai About Tern at the after-school painting sessions at Mangawhai Beach School. Susan, the PBL educator, did the in-class work to prepare students for the project. It was great to have experienced birders sharing their knowledge and facilitating the activities with teachers Jackie (MBS) and Maree (MNS).
You will see the Mangawhai Nature School’s Flock in the Mangawhai Santa Parade on 11 December 1pm from Alamar Crescent, through Wood Street shops and finishing at MAZ.

Please help these students with their efforts to protect our amazing shorebirds during the holiday period by doing your bit to keep them safe. Remember you are sharing their breeding, feeding and rest-up territory when you go to the beach this summer.

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