On Wednesday the 12th of May and Friday the 14th of May, Year 7 set off on a science excursion to the Botanical Gardens in Manurewa. The students were on a mission to identify the difference between healthy streams compared with unhealthy streams.
We kicked off the day by jumping on the bus and heading straight to the expansive gardens, where we enjoyed a guided tour around the forest and a talk about deforestation; and the downside to what is happening to our streams.
Our tour guide showed us an image of the number of forests we had when there was no human contact in New Zealand, followed by a devastating image of the greatly reduced number of forests New Zealand has currently. New Zealand’s forests have continued to deplete since the first settlers arrived in the early 1300’s. We discovered that deforestation is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.
Our tour guide discussed with us all about soil erosion and how negatively it affects our streams. She explained how soil erosion is such a widespread problem amongst New Zealand’s streams, and how damaging it is. This is caused by frequent use by humans and animals of the walkways, along with other causes such as wind and heavy rain.
This excursion was very eye-opening as well as interesting and enjoyable! We have learnt a lot from this. Thank you to all our teachers for organising this amazing trip and thank you to all those parents who took precious time out of their day to come along and learn with us.
