Taupo for Tomorrow

Snow capped mountains, blue and emerald lakes, native forests, steaming cliffs, mudpools, mountain streams, rivers and volcanic valleys – sounds wonderful yet Lake Taupo’s water quality is under threat! Recent initiatives see a new education programme underway to help protect the lake for generations to come.

Taupo for Tomorrow is a learning experience outside the classroom for school aged children from Years 1 to 13. The programme is delivered from the Tongariro National Trout Centre in Turangi where student attention is easily captured while viewing the fish. This makes the trout an excellent teaching tool for helping students learn about New Zealand’s freshwater environment and explore issues regarding human use of renewable resources and the theme of sustainability.

The commencement of Taupo for Tomorrow resulted three years ago through the formation of a partnership between the Department of Conservation, Genesis Energy and the Tongariro National Trout Centre Society. Since then, many different field trip options and associated educational materials have been developed, all which are available to teachers and educators free of charge.

Most recently, the Taupo District Council has come on board by funding the development and implementation of the Wonderful Wai programme, a freshwater education initiative specifically designed for the district’s local schools. This funding has enabled the development of educational resources specifically related to Lake Taupo and its tributaries, as well as covering the transport cost for approximately 40 classes to attend a full day Taupo for Tomorrow programme every year as part of their inquiry unit.   

From the fourth term of this year, Taupo for Tomorrow will also offer secondary school resource packages for science, biology and geography NCEA and unit standards. These packages contain teacher background information, PowerPoint presentations for student note-taking, student activity sheets and learning materials, an assessment task and marking schedule. An optional field trip associated with each unit will also be available. The aim of developing these packages is to enable secondary school’s to explore the Taupo region’s freshwater environment, with minimum prep work involved for teachers.

For more information visit our website www.taupofortomorrow.co.nz or contact Taupo for Tomorrow’s educator on (07) 386 9246.