Stepping into the shoes of scientists with GeoCamp Wairarapa
‘If you make good observations, you can’t be wrong’. That’s the heart of GeoCamp – a hands-on, field-based immersive learning experience designed to challenge kids to ‘step into the shoes of a scientist’ and discover the wonder of scientific inquiry for themselves.
GeoCamp covers topics from across GNS Science’s themes – including geological history and tectonics, climate change, sea-level rise, the carbon cycle, interpreting paleoenvironments, topography, and groundwater.
But fundamentally, GeoCamp is about teaching kids the building blocks of science – observation, deduction and interpretation – skills that they can carry into all areas of science, not just geoscience
Held this year in south Wairarapa, GeoCamp 2021 saw 31 intermediate-age local students and their teachers exploring the science on their doorstep, led by expert scientists from GNS Science.
Over the course of two weeks, the students went on fieldtrips across their region, visiting sites like Mangaopari Stream well-known for its abundant molluscan macro and foraminifera microfossils, and Lake Ōnoke to take sediment cores and look for evidence of past changes in the environment.
A highlight for many was Pigeon Bush, a world-famous geological site that demonstrates the extent of offset caused by Wairarapa Fault rupture.
GeoCamp | Wairarapa 2021 transcript
If you're curious, if you have a sense of wonder or interest in the world around you,
then GeoCamp is for you.
And in order to get that where you have as much hands on activity as possible, try to
get as far away from the textbook as possible and actually try to bring science into the real world.
We focus on observation, description and interpretation which are just
the core things that all scientists use.
And so we focus on that for two weeks, it's very very hands-on we try and spend a day in the field
I think the key thing that GeoCamp involves is developing a science programme
that actually demystifies science it shows that it's not a great big scary thing to do
it's something that absolutely anybody can participate in.
It doesn't have to be that they get really excited about fossils,
just thinking about the basic understanding of exploring the world around them and getting
more excited about that and thinking about how the world around them can teach them so
many things and they can learn so much just by looking at things in a different way.
My favorite day is probably when we went to Mangapouri Stream and we got to dig up fossils.
We went out to Lake Ferry and Pigeon Bush.
My favorite field trip was probably all of them because they were all so different.
We examined rocks and we just took samples and took them back here and that was really fun.
My favorite field trip was probably Pigeon Bush to
be able to go see the fault lines and see how the land had uplifted.
Learning how the fault lines work!
My favorite day of GeoCamp was probably going to Mangapouri station
and mining the fossils out of the shell beds.
My favorite trip would probably be the one we went around to Lake Ferry
and we looked at all the underground water.
My favourite day was going out to Lake Ōnoke and getting core samples.
My favorite bit about GeoCamp is to see the realisation on the students
faces about when they get to put it all together and the kind of penny drops and
they see that the earth they're standing on has a really really long history to tell.
My favorite thing it has been seeing these kids understand
really complex geology concepts and they just get it straight away.
This is stuff that I learned in university and these guys are learning it at intermediate age
and it's just so amazing to see how they've actually just understood it straight away.
First thing I thought I didn't really like science,
it was kind of a bit boring,
I didn't really do any science,
But when I started doing this I got extremely excited because I got to go to a lot of places,
I found out all these different ways to like look at science and do science.
The one thing that we really hope that the kids will take away is that science
is really cool and it's really exciting to do.
If they take that away then it means that they're most likely to carry on and do it a
bit more at high school and may even go through to university and undertake a science career.
Now I quite like it, might do it at college.
But super importantly with GeoCamp is also trying to provide the teachers with
the confidence that they can head back to their classroom and teach science.
Show them that you don't actually have to have your answers, you don't actually have to
know absolutely everything, because if we knew everything we wouldn't be doing science.
Well I think the most valuable thing that I've learned and I was talking to you about it that
you know what they've taught us about the way in which science can work through geology,
we can still take that back and use those key ideas across any other science.
And not just take the ideas of observation into science, but also taking it into
you know like anything, anything just fostering curiosity getting out in the world
seeing what's around us and why it's there and how things interact with each other.
I really enjoyed taking the kids to Pigeon Bush. You see them slowly realising the significance of the site as they take their measurements and have that ‘wow’ moment when they realise the ground they’re standing on moved 19 metres in one go”
says
Back in the classroom, the students combined their observations from field days with further hands-on investigation. They discussed the wider science context of their fieldwork and designed and ran experiments to test their own hypotheses.
GeoCamp culminated in a science expo that challenged students to think about how to communicate their findings in much the same way as professional scientists. It was also an opportunity for them to share their discoveries with their peers, family, and the wider public.
For teachers, GeoCamp is an opportunity to explore a new approach to science that will bring new ideas and local knowledge they can share back at school and revisit in the future.
“When the teachers take GeoCamp concepts and principles back to their own classrooms, then we know we’ve impacted more than just the kids who attended – GeoCamp extends into the wider community and inspires students for years to come,”
2021 marks ten years of GNS Science delivering GeoCamp, an exciting milestone for everyone involved in the programme.
We’re proud of the role that GeoCamp plays in empowering kids with the skills and passion they need to become the next generation of scientists doing world leading science and research for the good of all New Zealand.
GeoCamp 2021 was possible because of invaluable support from REAP Wairarapa in organising and running the programme, and thanks to funding from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)/Hīkina Whakatutuki, OMV, and Equinor.