UC scientist takes school students on virtual field trip
Published by Communications and Development
21 May 2009
Secondary school students are being given a chance to visit a remote wildlife sanctuary and experience life as a scientist thanks to a virtual field trip following the work of a Canterbury University researcher.
The field trip, “Ancient New Zealand: Chatham Islands”, is based around the research of postdoctoral fellow Dr Melanie Massaro (Biological Sciences) who is studying a number of bird species on Rangatira Island, a wildlife reserve managed by the Department of Conservation in the Chatham Islands.
Among the birds she is studying is the endangered black robin.
The field trip is a joint venture between the College of Science’s Outreach programme and the School of Biological Sciences, and supported by the Canterbury Community Trust.
It is experienced through a series of video and photographic footage hosted by the LEARNZ website. LEARNZ is an interactive online education programme for New Zealand school students which offers a range of virtual field trip experiences aligned with the school curriculum. The field trip is also accompanied by a range of resources for teachers, including online background material and activities, web diaries and weekly live audio conferences with the scientists linked to the UC field trip.
UC Science Communication and Digital Imaging Technician Matt Walters and natural history film-making student James Muir, both spent four weeks on Rangatira with Dr Massaro collecting photos and video footage of the island’s unique biodiversity late last year. This material, along with Dr Massaro’s research, forms the basis of the LEARNZ field trip which introduces senior biology students to the wildlife of the island, gives them an idea of what it is like to live in such a remote location and shows them how scientists go about collecting data.
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| UC Science Communication and Digital Imaging Technician Matt Walters (right) films Dr Melanie Massaro on the Chatham Island of Rangatira. |
Science Outreach Co-ordinator Joan Gladwyn said while information about the UC field trip was also available on the Outreach website, by working with LEARNZ the material was reaching a much wider school audience.
“This way, students throughout New Zealand will benefit from current research on native wildlife.”
LEARNZ Project Manager Charmaine Nelson said so far 62 schools had signed up for the UC field trip, which was launched on 5 May.
“It’s a great way for school students to work with a scientist and see what they do in real life – and the location of this fieldtrip is somewhere 99 per cent of New Zealanders will never get to see. With LEARNZ they are ‘virtually there’,” said Mrs Nelson.
Dr Massaro, whose research is being funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, said Rangatira Island is “a very special place”.
“It is one of the few places that has remained free of mammalian predators and so it has all these species which are not found on the mainland. It’s a biodiversity hotspot and very unique.”
Dr Massaro is working on two projects on Rangatira Island. She is investigating whether the introduction of mammalian predators has altered the behaviour and life history traits of New Zealand birds by comparing the behaviours and traits of populations in a number of sites that differ in predation risk. She is also involved in a project with Associate Professor James Briskie (Biological Sciences) investigating the consequences of population bottlenecks on the long-term survival of native birds. Severe bottlenecks can reduce genetic diversity and increase inbreeding as individuals are forced to mate with close relatives. However, it is unknown what the long-term consequences are for bird species that have passed through such a bottleneck.
The UC field trip is being run over a four-week period, with new instalments added to the LEARNZ website each week until 29 May. The field trip and associated resources will continue to be available to teachers through the LEARNZ archive.
For further information please contact:
Stacey Doornenbal
Communications Officer
Communications and Development
University of Canterbury
Ph: (03) 364 2984
stacey.doornenbal@canterbury.ac.nz