Partnership Through Collaboration (PTC Trust) organised for our students to visit the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Laboratory in Porirua.
Along with the Year 10 STEM team, we also took with us students from the Y12 Horticulture class whose job it will be to create a landscape design when we install a pilot grey water system in the school grounds. The day long visit included a visit to a retired couple's home on the Kapiti coast to see first hand how waste water can be recycled
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"Trips like this one show students how scientists work and how the work they do impacts on ordinary peoples' lives"
The trip was extremely useful for us as Science teachers because it enabled us to talk to experts in the field and to firm up the plans we had for this project. You will hear about our progress soon enough but rest assured this teacher got some great ideas from the day to help get our project underway.
ESR and PTC Investigation
One of the things we undertook to complete in our project was an investigation to find out how different plant species cope with grey water.
The students potted up the trees while we were at the ESR laboratory and they all received a drink of liquid manure before we put them on the bus back to Whanganui. It turned out though that May was cold and wet, so we decided to hide the trees and shrubs away in the school horticulture area to recover and build up some strength before we begin this part of the experiment in spring.