Conservation Education Project

Our Project Mission: To increase the knowledge of Cook Islands youth in specific Conservation and Environmental topics by developing and implementing relevant educational modules.

The Conservation Education Project will develop learning modules in 4 thematic areas covering a range of curriculum objectives.

These will be introduced over a 2 year period to coincide with other relevant learning events such as Lagoon Day.

Each topic will consist of a Teachers Resource Booklet, Student Study Sheet, Field Project and Research Assignment (see attached flyer). We are currently working with the MoE to link the content and objectives to curriculum outcomes.

These materials cover the following 4 topics;

Sea Turtle Conservation
Lagoon Health and Monitoring
Shark Awareness and Conservation
Land and Sea Interactions

These topics have been selected as they are relevant to current issues in the Cook Islands and link in to other PICI projects for support and guidance. They cover key GEF objectives of Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change, Land Degradation and International Waters.

This project came about from a chance engagement with a school on one of our remote Northern atolls, Rakahanga. A GreenTurtle came ashore and laid eggs right on the school grounds. Due to a connection with Dr. White at a lifeskills programme, the school principle, Tuhe Piho, contacted the Ministry of Education who in tern contacted us.

This lead to us rushing some teaching resources to Tuhe, answering students questions and culminated with a live video skype session.

From there, the Ministry of Education discussed with us other ways for this experience to be duplicated and shared, something we are now working on.

Check our blog for information about the Rakahanga experience.