Enviro Schools cluster meeting

The Enviro Schools cluster of East Auckland meet every term, facilitated by Cate Jessep, the sustainable schools adviser attached to the Auckland Council.  This term the cluster met at Mission Heights Primary School and spent time in the adjacent Tane's forest.  Several people shared their ideas or expertise with the wider group in a collegial atmosphere.   

I was invited to share some resources about fungi.  An interest table was set up with mushrooms collected earlier from the local area, mushroom cultures, books to assist with identification and life histories of fungi, and links to useful, very accessible sites on fungi (see Fabulous Fungi Finds).

It was interesting to show teachers how to identify the mushrooms they find using online resources, either Landcare Research's public database or NZ Nature Watch.

These name badges were a great introduction to a a sustainable initiative.

Part of the meeting was spent in Tane's forest, where we explored the bush from a Maori perspective, starting with a karakia, completed the healthy forest survey and worked collectively on other related activities.

Helen, from STLP2108a, facilitated a group activity to demonstrate the effect of kauri die-back on symptomatic kauri.  Participants sucked water through straws (some of which were pin pricked) to model kauri drawing water up the trunk,