Powering our local kids in English and Te Reo Maori
Whakakahia Te Hiko/Power It Up is a tactile electricity experiment aimed at Year 5 and up students and available to every primary and intermediate school in the area.
Counties Power Chief Executive Judy Nicholl says the programme’s aim is to teach children how electricity works and, most importantly, how to stay safe around it.
“We’re proud to once-again supply a science-based electricity learning resource for our local children. Whakakahia Te Hiko/Power It Up is an extremely valuable resource that we have also had translated into Te Reo so local kura and Maori classes can benefit from it too. The booklet is a free resource that is available to anyone in both English and Te Reo Maori for download online.”
“The programme consists of paper circuitry illustrations designed to reflect local Franklin and southern Counties icons and sites. Using the supplied circuitry components, including copper tape, batteries, LED lights and a buzzer, children learn how to make electrical circuits and light up the pictures. Children will create electrical circuits to light up landmarks like the glow worms at the Nikau Caves, the lighthouse at Manukau Heads or sound an alarm to wake the dairy farmer.”
The programme also includes a teacher’s resource card, along with important electrical safety messages for students to take home that teaches them about electricity dangers inside the home and out and about.
Pukekohe Hill School Principal Simon Williams says the programme will be used in the school’s mainstream and Maori enrichment class.
“We’ve been using the booklets here at Pukekohe Hill School in our Year 5 and 6 classes and are looking forward to bringing a science-themed Te Reo Maori resource for our Maori enrichment class in the coming weeks. The kit is a wonderful resource that supports students with computational thinking and design – an area of increasing focus for the digital technologies curriculum in all New Zealand Schools.”
Counties Power worked alongside Waikato company School Kit, to develop the concept, design and programme. The booklets and teaching resources can be downloaded for free from www.schoolkit.co.nz or www.countiespower.com.
The free kits have been offered to every primary, intermediate school or kura in the Counties Power network area which runs coast to coast between southern Papakura and Mercer, and west of the Waikato River to Waikaretu.