Canterbury Museum educators have hit the road, bringing their teaching magic to the children of Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast) on a 1,200 kilometre education odyssey.
The Museum’s new education van, which is filled with costumes, historic items and fun learning activities, was driven over the Alps to five schools at the end of last year.
The touring education programme includes activities on everything from dinosaurs to navigating the Pacific and earthquakes. Museum Education Communicators, Muriel McGlone and Anthony Hennig, said it felt good to bring their work to remote and often small West Coast schools. The smallest in Haast had just eight pupils, Muriel says.
"We're so delighted with the children's engagement with our programmes. It felt so special to bring the Museum to them."
“The remoteness of places like Haast and Fox Glacier meant this wasn’t something they could get every day.”
Muriel says the Museum has a special connection with Whataroa School near Ōkārito, which is close to where the Museum’s magnificent blue whale specimen was found in 1908.
“One of the pupils gave us a picture of a blue whale that he had drawn.
“We spent a lot of time talking about the blue whale and they had a lot of questions. Mainly about its size.”
Smaller schools meant all the children were able to dress up in the education team’s historic costumes, Anthony says.
“Usually only about three or four children can wear them, but in Haast we could get the whole school dressed in those clothes, which was quite cool. It was really engaging because it meant everyone could be involved rather than just a few, as mostly happens in Christchurch schools.”
Anthony and Muriel visited schools in Franz Josef, Fox Glacier, Haast, Whataroa and South Westland Area School in Harihari. Over the weeklong trip they covered about 1,200 kilometres. When the van arrived at one West Coast school, many of the children said it looked like a spaceship.
The dedicated education van was purchased in April so the Museum could still deliver its rich learning programmes for children while the Rolleston Avenue site is closed for major redevelopment. The team have visited 53 different schools since April, with many repeat visits, Anthony says.
“With the closure of Rolleston Avenue, we decided to take the Museum on the road and deliver our programmes in schools. It’s been a fantastic move and we are really enjoying meeting students in their schools."
“We try to go to each school for the day so we can reach as many children as possible. The schools really appreciate that.”
They received the warmest of welcomes on the West Coast.
“They were really appreciative that we were able to come over and all of them invited us back.”
Find out more about Canterbury Museum’s education programmes here.
