Take Action for Water

Take Action for Water was instigated by Greater Wellington Regional Council to educate young people about the importance of the environment. It aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills to make informed environmental decisions in daily life. Through its ‘action’ phase students learn by doing, as well as making immediate improvements to the world around them.

Take Action for Water commenced in 2001, with a focus largely on freshwater streams and water pollution. The programme was revised in 2008 to take a broader approach, looking at the ‘bigger picture’ of catchments and the ecosystems they contain. It investigates the relationships between the living parts of the ecosystem and the impact we have on it. It shows how we can act to reduce our impacts and help to restore the processes and functions of these ecosystems.

The catchment approach allows students, teachers and their communities to ‘take action’ for the environment in a broad range of ways, not just those directly related to waterways.

Programme overview

Take Action for Water is an in-depth unit of teaching and learning for Year 5 – 8 students. It is an integrated programme of work that is intended to be completed over the course of a term. Take Action for Water reflects both the ‘New Zealand Curriculum’ and the ‘Environmental Education Guidelines for New Zealand Schools’.

The programme structure scaffolds new learning for students. They begin by learning about native ecosystems before moving on to understand how human activities have negatively impacted on these ecosystems. The Explore Day then gives students the opportunity to experience fi rst hand both pristine and degraded stream environments. Using their new knowledge and understanding students are then able to take action for the environment in meaningful ways.

The different sections of the programme are outlined below:

Native Ecosystems

Introduces students to catchments and their waterways, including the plants and animals that live there.

Human Impacts

Makes students aware of how human activities affect stream health. Students apply their knowledge and understanding to a catchment scenario activity.

Explore Day

Gives students the opportunity to test the health of streams and to view first hand the things they have learnt about in previous sections of the programme.

Take Action

Allows students to identify an environmental issue of concern in their school or community and to plan and implement a Take Action project. Through evaluation and reflection students monitor the success and on going requirements of their project.