SEAFRIENDS has changed. For café, snorkel hire, school programmes go to Newseafriends.co.nz. For learning about our seas and planet, begin at the home
page of seafriends.org.nz This page is no longer maintained but is kept for archival reasons. Seafriends - index for schools www.seafriends.org.nz/school/index.htm
Some children learn better by seeing and hearing. You may find
a suitable video or animated slideshow here (growing)
home -- Rev: 19971128,20020710,20070810,20091023,20110612,20110903,
Introduction New Zealand comes sixth in the world as far as its reach of ocean is
concerned, its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). We are very much a sea nation,
also because very few of us live more than 50km away from the sea. Our
natural heritage of unique fauna and flora extends further into the sea
with hundreds of species unique to our country. As schools prepare our
young to develop their potential, our uniqueness is also defining our sense
of awareness and our culture. Shouldn't therefore every pupil become aware
of the uniqueness of our seas, their heritage?
Fortunately a number of schools have found their way to the Seafriends
school programmes where the big event is to snorkel in the sea and see
this wonder world first-hand. Riveting lectures, marine ecosystem aquariums
and beach studies complete the day, which many rate as the best school
trip ever with a high educational component. Others just treat it as a
fun day out with healthy activity and awesome experience.
When your school is within reach of the Goat Island marine reserve,
do not miss out, even though it may stretch your budget. Many parents accompanying
these trips have found it of great value. The most popular day programme
consists of
a guided snorkel dive in the marine reserve, made safe because of our unique
thick safety suits and experienced guides.
a riveting lecture at Seafriends adapted to level and interest, complete
with a visit to unique ecosystem aquariums and a movie.
a beach study to find what lives in the intertidal rocky shore and to learn
how it survives there.
Groups are rotated between activities, each time slot requiring at least
90 minutes. The lunch break is flexible and must tie in with the programme.
Come as early as you can and leave as late as is possible.
Cost The good news is that we have kept last year's prices, thereby also
absorbing the increased cost of GST, and we have encouraging discounts
to help you along:
Depending on group size: $20-26 for all the gear plus $7 for each activity.
Two classes, 2 activities = $36 pp.
Parents pay children's rate for the gear only. One teacher per class free.
-10% Early bird discount, bookings before November. It adds to the following:
-10% Booked in Term2 or Term4
-10% First time visit in Term1
-15% First time visit in Term2 or 4
International students International students visit New Zealand schools not just for continuing
their curriculum but also for learning the English language and anything
about our country. A visit to Seafriends and snorkelling in the sea satisfies
all these requirements and is such a good and healthy outing for a very
affordable price. Last year we have seen a promising growth in the number
of schools taking this challenge, and we hope it may accelerate. Don't
miss this opportunity.
Night snorkelling Night snorkelling is back on our programme. One sees fish sleeping
and the night-shift on the prowl. Colours are beautiful and fish can be
approached. It is an eerie experience, remembered for life. Schools staying
in nearby camps can now plan for a night snorkel dive, under the following
conditions:
the price is $15 per student. Parents and teachers are free.
we have invested in powerful dive torches, specially selected for the occasion.
students must have done our guided snorkel dive beforehand.
night snorkelling is best done on the same day as the day snorkelling such
that the gear is kept for the whole day.
parents must be confident in the water.
2-4 students per guide.
sea conditions must be mild and water clarity adequate.
duration is 40-50 minutes, more than adequate, and even allowing for one
rotation.
students must be confident and at least 11 years old because one does not
want a panic attack at night and orders must be obeyed.
Our safety procedures, safe gear and extensive experience guarantee a safe
and awesome experience.
Night lectures Schools staying nearby can benefit from our night lectures which saves
time during the daytime while occupying an evening in a meaningful and
educational way. Night lectures are also more relaxed as the time schedule
is flexible. Price is the same as for a day lecture.
Staying at Seafriends We are allowed to accommodate small groups (typically 12) in tents
on our camp ground or marae-style in our classroom, as part of farm-stay
or home-stay accommodation. Facilities are excellent with toilets, showers
and a cooking area. Pricing on request. Booking essential
How you can help Educating students about our seas may not be your strength. How much
for instance, have you learnt about the sea at Teaching College? How much
marine education is part of the present school curriculum? Yet new Zealand
has far more sea than land and we depend on it for our welfare and spiritual
wellbeing. Very few people in this country live further than 100 km away
from the sea.
We've always taken the sea for granted, relying on its bounties to remain
bountiful but unfortunately, in recent years we have seen that this is
no longer the case. In the near future some very important decisions need
to be made, perhaps by the very children in your classroom.
The idea of this Internet information resource is that it provides living
information which is updated regularly and which never goes out of print.
It is also electronic information which means that you can click it straight
into your computer, edit and compose with other material to suit your needs.
So why should you help if it is that simple? We want you and other teachers
to be efficient with your time and that of your students. We want learning
to be pleasant and effective. That is, as you well know, a tall order.
But with a litle help from many, we can get it right. So here are a few
suggestions:
Errors: you may find simple spelling errors or factual errors.
If these stay there, they will be copied and multiplied thousands of times.
Your vision: Your vision is based on many years of experience
in teaching. We like to hear your opinions and visions.
Using the information: While using the information, you may discover
that the content can be improved by rearranging, revising diagrams and
so on. You may use it in many different ways.
Your input: You may already have developed effective methods
of teaching marine matters. Consider sharing these with us; to include
your method and worksheets on this internet site.
New information: You may have access to new or improved information,
diagrams, pictures and so on. Consider sharing this with us and everyone
using this resource.
Your criticism: Yes, we are inviting you to criticise. Hopefully
you will also be able to send us some approval.
Tell others: Nothing helps as much as telling others about this
site.
How to use this site This site was started in mid-September 1997. Read the log of recent
changes to see where we are at, and the site
map to gain an overview, but eventually it will contain a very extensive
amount of information and education about our marine environment. We imagine
that you may use this site mainly to learn and to a lesser extent to actually
use it in the classroom.Our aim is, however, to provide the resource material
in such a way that you can use it rightaway, thus saving you time and effort.
However, for the moment we are concentrating our efforts on providing the
resource material, rather than the accompanying work sheets. Right now,
this site is intended more for educating teachers than chilldren.
Did you know that the Seafriends CD is an indispensable
school resource at little cost?
By simply clicking on a link, your computer is loading the related page
into its 'memory' from which you can print it on your own printer. That
is by far the easiest to do, hence our wish to make all pages and worksheets
ready for immediate use. Most browsers allow you to save the Internet page
in a folder on you hard disk. Internet pages are of the HTML type (Hyper
Text Markup Language) and as such are not immediately accessible by simple
word processors. Most modern word processors, however, have no problem
converting an HTML document into their native formats. Once you have tried
this path, you will be able to mix our information with bits of your own,
thus tailoring the information to your needs. Since HTML is perhaps the
only world-wide standardised editor (word processor), you may wish to learn
how to use it. Netscape's COMPOSER or Microsoft's FRONT PAGE are not difficult
to master. Note that the Word (.DOC) and Pagemaker (.PDF) formats are proprietary
and not openly standardised.
Please
note that on some pages the background or 'paper' has been embossed with
patterns, such as here on this page. When printing to your printer, however,
this background does not come through, if you unclick the tick mark in
file/page
setup. Scattered among the text you will encounter small pictures
(thumbnails) that give an idea of the larger picture 'behind' it, which
you can view by clicking on the thumbnail. We will try to make these pictures
worthwhile for use in the classroom as paper print-outs or overhead transparencies.
You may also encounter coloured worksheet symbols as the one shown here.
Click on the picture to see what we expect from our worksheets.
The worksheet thumbnails
have been colour coded according to the suggested curriculum level, as
shown here.
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
Here is the world-standardised
colour code (as used on electronic components and elsewhere).
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View this table with achievement objectives
for each curriculum level. It shows what we attempt to achieve with our
educational resources.
The concept of levels could be dangerous since it could work in an exclusive
manner - teachers skipping the worksheets with colour codes outside their
level of interest. The worksheets look spiral-bound but this won't show
when printing. They have been designed with a left margin, to be easy to
read and to print on an A4 sheet. Where answers are provided at the bottom
of the worksheet, these may 'roll over' to the next page, for your eyes
only. Should printing them give problems, please let us know. Play with
the printer settings to adjust the left, right, top, bottom margins and
use the browser's preview option to get the right result before printing
to paper. [update: worksheets postponed]
Read the Curriculum Links to find interesting
sections. We may even put in there a list of teachers' favourites!
Please
note that on some pages the background or 'paper' has been embossed with
patterns, such as here on this page. When printing to your printer, however,
this background does not come through, if you unclick the tick mark in
file/page
setup. Scattered among the text you will encounter small pictures
(thumbnails) that give an idea of the larger picture 'behind' it, which
you can view by clicking on the thumbnail. We will try to make these pictures
worthwhile for use in the classroom as paper print-outs or overhead transparencies.
You may also encounter coloured worksheet symbols as the one shown here.
Click on the picture to see what we expect from our worksheets.