What You Can Do At School
By growing understanding of land and water science in our communities, we enable the well-informed conversations and collaborations that create transformational change. For this change to be sustainable, it’s crucial to involve our young people
Pūhoro STEM Academy
Our Land and Water is supporting and growing tomorrow’s scientists, influencers and leaders by sponsoring the Pūhoro STEM Academy, a mentoring and support programme for Māori high school students who are interested in taking up science careers. The programme, developed by Massey University, currently has over 630 students across three regions. Read about some of future researchers coming out of the Pūhoro STEM Academy here.
Teacher resources
There are many free learning resources and modules for teachers that may spark children’s interest in a later career in agri-science. Note that most of these resources have been created with funding from industry partners, and the source of funding may sometimes influence the resource created. A critical lens should be applied by teacher and students.
- There are several resources for primary school teachers on the DairyNZ Schools website, aligned with the New Zealand curriculum:
- Can It Icecream? (year 1-6) – using science knowledge to turn breakfast food into icecream.
- CLASS-ified Mystery Challenge (year 4-8) – to create real world connections between rural and city kids.
- In The Milk Business (year 5-8) – examining the relationship between dairy farming and the economy.
- DairyNZ Schools also runs a School Farm Visit programme to help your school connect with a local dairy farm for a field trip.
- The Agrication website has teaching resources for primary and secondary students, as well as career opportunities and events.
- The Chain in My Lunchbox (year 5-6) – introduction to the food chain and how human actions change the environment where food is produced
- Challenge and Opportunities for the Future (year 9-10) – exploring concepts such as globalisation and entrepreneurship in relation to the red meat industry.
- The Wool in Schools programme (year 7-8) has syllabus ideas across STEM, economics, English and art.
- The Growing NZ Innovation Challenge (year 10) is a one-day programme where teams of students solve real-life primary sector challenges
- The LEARNZ website has several lessons and videos that allow children to take virtual field trips to remote places throughout NZ. Some recent field trips that are relevant to the work of Our Land and Water include:
- For senior high school students, the Get Ahead website has some useful teacher resources.
- Growing NZ has a long and growing directory of teacher resources.
- The Ministry for Primary Industries has teacher resources, including lesson plans for year 4 and up and plenty of ideas for using information and data from the Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries (SOPI) report in the classroom.
- 3D Dairy is an interactive model for children to find out where in the world our dairy products go.
- See Learn More for further resources at the Science Learning Hub, NZ Geographic and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
For school leavers
The primary sector needs innovative young people on farms and within agribusinesses. Below are some opportunities for students to learn more and discover scholarship opportunities.
- The Get Ahead website and Get Ahead Experience Days help high school students interested in primary sector or agribusiness careers learn more.
- Growing NZ lists career options and 250 scholarship sources (130 are for first-time students).
- The Ministry for Primary Industries has produced careers fact sheets and video interviews with people working in the primary industries.
- DairyNZ awards undergraduate scholarships to outstanding students with an interest in dairying undertaking an agricultural-related degree at Lincoln, Massey or Waikato Universities.