Displaying items by tag: education

St Joseph’s Marist College Eco-Club excursion to the Liebeek River

On Wednesday 27 September 2017 the Cape Leopard Trust #EnviroEdu team took the St Joseph’s Marist College eco club down to the Liesbeek River.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the strong smell of Spring hung in the air. The learners’ were all full of excitement having been told that today they would be getting wet and have the chance to explore the river.

As we got to the Fernwood Park section of the Liesbeek River we were met by the very enthusiastic Living Labs team, Jeremy and Jordan. The Cape Leopard Trust has partnered with Living Labs before, and we are always enriched by the experience.

Immediately Jeremy and Jordan had grabbed the attention of the 11 learners’. As we looked at the importance of a river and why they are necessary in urban settings, the learners were very interested to find out all about what lives in this river, where it comes from and where it is going.

After this the conversation was led to why it is important to look after the rivers, and how we can tell if it is in a bad way or not. The learners’ were now very excited as this led us to the part where we get wet.

Using nets, hands and feet the learners’, in three groups, moved sand, plants and stones around in the river, catching all the invertebrates that were stirred up. After ten minutes of intensive capture, we then released what we had caught into trays of water to see what critters we had managed to find in the river
bed. The learners and educators alike where amazed to find so many different organisms living in the river, not only that, but they were shocked by what these tiny creatures actually looked like. It is amazing to share a river with some of these interesting creatures.

This is called a Mini-SASS (South African Scoring System) test, and using the data one gets you can determine a ‘score’ for the river. A high score would mean that the river is healthy as highly sensitive animals may have been found. A low score for the river would mean that the river is not in a good state
and only hardy species were found.

At the end of this little experiment we then gathered all the numbers and data from each groups’ tray and found that the score for this part of the river was not as high as it should be. The learners’ then discussed why they think it may not be as healthy as it should.

The reasons given were all those that suggest that looking after our rivers is extremely important, it is also something we can, and need to, all do.

After all this excitement and fun we sadly had to say goodbye to the Liesbeek and the Living Labs team.

We would like to thank Jeremy and Jordan of Living Labs for the use of all their equipment, expertise and enthusiasm. It truly was a very special afternoon and we are sure that the learners’ will remember this for months to come.

Spring is upon us, and we started off September by visiting schools around Cape Town and teaching about the need to protect our rapidly disappearing natural habitats.  The CLT Enviro team was involved in quite a few Arbour week related activities. These included giving talks at schools and planting indigenous fynbos plants at the schools as well as running eco-clubs which also involved a talk and some planting activities. 

We were fortunate enough to have Bongani Mnisi from the City of Cape Town joining us for our Arbour day talk at Muizenberg Junior School. Bongani heads up some of the City’s reserves and is also involved in the City’s Iingcungcu Project. Iingcungcu is the IsiXhosa word for long-billed sunbirds and sugarbirds. The project highlights the threats facing these pollinating bird species and the need to restore natural bird-attracting vegetation mainly in the Cape Flats areas and schools to aid in creating corridors for these species. After giving my talk on the Biodiversity in the Cape, the threats facing our biodiversity & what we can do about it, Bongani gave a fascinating talk to the students about his project. We then all went outside to plant indigenous water-saving, bird-attracting fynbos plants. The species we planted included Tecomaria capensis (Honeysuckle), Leonotis leonurus (Wild Dagga), Salvia africana-lutea and Salvia lanceolata (Salvias). These plants were donated to Muizenberg Junior School by the Cape Leopard Trust.

The following week, I was joined by Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area’s (KRCA) People and Conservation officer, Ismail Wambi. Together we visited Golden Grove Primary School in Claremont, Siyazingisa School in Gugulethu, Pelican Park Primary in Pelican Park, Herschel Girls Preparatory School in Claremont and Douglas Road Primary School in Plumstead.  At each of the schools, we did a power-point presentation which introduced the need to protect and conserve our biodiversity, highlighting the fact that planting fynbos shrubs in our gardens and at our schools is one way to help biodiversity.  We involved the children and managed to get them to create and plant their own fynbos gardens. The children had lots of fun getting their hands dirty by digging, landscaping and planting the young plants. The species that we planted included the following: Leucadendron levisanus, Pelargonium capitatum, Eriocephalus africanus (Wild Rosemary), Metalasia densa, Ruschia makowanii, amongst others. All of these plants have these in common: They are indigenous fynbos shrubs; they are low-maintenance, meaning they can be left alone to grow, some may need an occasional pruning; they are water-wise plants and therefore do not need regular watering; some of them, especially the Pelargonium’s and the Wild Rosemary’s attract a variety of pollinators. KRCA kindly donated and supplied the plants. The students were encouraged to keep a watchful eye on their gardens and to look after their plants by ensuring that the gardens are kept clear of any litter, the occasional flying soccer balls, and curious yet potentially destructive little children. 

We’d like to thank the staff, principals and teachers at all of the schools for accepting our invitation and allowing us to talk to the pupils and plant on the school grounds. We need more schools like the abovementioned, to not only help create spaces for plants and animals to flourish but also to instil interest and passion within the minds of our youth. It is our aim in the CLT education project and the aim of many projects and organisations alike, to inspire our youth to become ambassadors for biodiversity. The more schools that involve themselves in these projects or create their own similar projects, the better it is for all. 

- By Catherine Kühn

To celebrate Mandela Day, we took a group of youngsters from Huis Andrew Murray, a Children’s Home and NGO in Wellington, for an outing to Olive Glen Mountain Farm. The young participants were very excited and eager to get going with the trip. We collected the group in the morning and took them to Olive Glen where we were met by Avril and Bruce Powrie, owners of Olive Glen Farm.

We began by giving the group a briefing on safety rules while hiking and also went through what kinds of animals we might come across whilst out hiking and what to do in these situations.

We started on up the trail and stopped at various points along the way to discuss topics such as alien invasive vegetation and why we need to eradicate these species. We discussed ants and termites and their homes, we also chatted about the elusive aardvark. We came across some porcupine scat, talked about this animal and how they defend themselves against predators such as the leopard.
We discussed leopard diet and told the group about the leopards in our mountains and what makes them different to the Savanna leopards. These participants were very surprised to hear that we have leopards in our mountains and that these beautiful creatures live in relatively close proximity to us.

The youngsters were very interested in what we were telling them and one participant named Brandon quite literally had an answer for every question we posed to the group and he also had about two questions for everything we mentioned. Seeing this kind of interest from our youth is amazing and we hope that this particular young boy and every other HAM child on our outing remember what they learnt that day. We always encourage our participants to tell their friends and family about what they have learnt on our outings and we hope that these children fulfil that request.

When we got down to the Wildepaardejacht river, the children were in the water before we could say “be careful, it is very cold, the water has come straight from the snow”. The Felixberg (right above from where we were standing) had been doused with snow just the day before and we could clearly feel this in the crisp, cold air and when we dared to feel the water. However, this did not deter the eager participants from exploring the river, jumping, splashing and getting into the water! I thought they had all gone crazy, it was freezing (I was shivering from just watching) but I stood and observed in amusement as they splashed each other and had the time of their lives in the icy water.

Along the path we found evidence of baboons having fed on various protea plants and we showed the children the different protea species such as the Waboom, Sugarbush protea, Protea nerifolia, and a few Leucadendron species. We also came across some Erica’s and we spotted a few sunbirds and sugarbirds making use of the beautiful sunny winter’s day.

We retired for lunch at the Riverhouse and enjoyed the warmth of the sun before setting out down to the river again, for a MiniSASS (South African Scoring System) survey. We briefed the group and got them into teams and tasked each team with searching the river to find river biota. We found a lot of different river invertebrates including a few Stoneflies and other Mayflies (high-scoring, sensitive-to- pollution river invertebrates) and determined that the river is in good, pristine condition, unaffected by humans and by various forms of pollution. The group really enjoyed this informative activity and it was a good way to end the day.

We would like to extend our thanks to Bruce and Avril Powrie for granting us access to their land and for their continued support of the Cape Leopard Trust. We would also like to thank Huis Andrew Murray for the continued partnership we have with them, we always enjoy working with the HAM children.

Till next time!

This year our Inter-school art competition was called "The Essence of a Leopard". We wanted to honour some of the unique leopard qualities that we teach children about on our camps and day trips, such as the role leopards play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, as a way to develop a greater understanding of how vital nature is to our well-being.

Kirstenbosch Gardens’ amazing Colophon conference room offered beautiful views of the national botanical garden and this is where the panel of judges had the very difficult task of having to choose the winners for this year’s competition. Judges included the enigmatic, Braam Malherbe, who recently spent 92 days at sea rowing from South Africa to South America; the most gracious, Anelevan der Merwe from Bridgestone; the wonderful, Elizabeth Martins, former education project coordinator; the dynamic, Helen Turnbull, Cape Leopard Trust CEO; hard-working environmental educators, Catherine Kühn and Michael Henshall and the current education project coordinator, Hadley Lyners.

After being briefed about the criteria for selection, the judges moved from artwork to artwork using their score sheets to judge the wonderful and very creative artworks. Afterwards, they sat down to view online entries via a looping MS PowerPoint presentation to complete stage 1 of the process.The judges found it very difficult to select their favourites given the outstanding quality of the artworks. Once judges had made their selections, they then moved to stage 2 of the process where they collectively had to decide which of their selections were going to be the final winners. This process was characterised by much debate and motivation from everyone involved. It was definitely a daunting task, to say the least. Finally, after much deliberation, the winners were chosen.

All winners have been notified individually and will be preparing for their fully sponsored camp in the beginning of September of this year. The winners and the runner-ups will have their artwork displayed in the CLT 2018 calendar and in addition, they will receive a calendar for themselves and their schools when the environmental educators will do a presentation about leopards and human-wildlife conflict at their schools. Winning artworks will be put up for auction at a Cape Leopard Trustauction event towards the end of the year in 2017.

The Cape Leopard Trust Education Project wishes to thank Bridgestone SA for making all of this possible through their sponsorship of the competition, the judges for availing their time and energy, Kirstenbosch Gardens for hosting the competition, all the Cape Leopard Trust supporters out there,the parents, teachers and mentors of the artists and last, but not least all the brilliant, young artists for their entries. We are constantly amazed at the talent that our youth have and realise that we have to continue investing in our youth since they are our leaders of the future.

We look forward to our next competition in 2018. Thank you for taking the time to read this article.Enjoy the pictures!

Regards,
Hadley Lyners, Education Project Coordinator
Email: [email protected]

The Drakenstein Municipality World Environment Day is an event in which the municipality brings together four different local primary schools. The day is focused around raising awareness for environmental issues as well as promoting the idea that one can have a career in the environmental sector. The day was joined by the municipalities’ own Environmental Management department, Shark Spotters, Imhoff Snake Park, WESSA Eco Schools and then the Cape Leopard Trust.

Each organisation set up an exhibition stand for the learners’ to be able to come around and see what each organisation is up to and the work done by each.

The municipality had arranged for Hillcrest Primary, Dal Josaphat Primary, Ligstraal Primary and St Albans Primary school’s, to participate in this great occasion.

The Cape Leopard Trust Environmental Educators found themselves in between the Shark Spotters and the Imhoff Snake Park. Certainly a row of apex predators. The snake park, having brought live specimens, inevitably caused quite a stir. Every learner wanted to see the snakes, tortoises and lizards, yet ran to our table every time the snakes moved.The day started off with an inspiring talk by the Shark Spotters, touching on ocean ecology and the role sharks play in the oceans, ending off with why we so desperately need the presence of sharks in our seas and how to look after our oceans for all life.

After this, all the participants were entertained by a very successful and humorous puppet show. The message of the show was to not litter and to look after the environment around us. It certainly grabbed the children’s attention and kept them laughing and entertained.

After this, Cape Leopard Trust educator, Michael Henshall, gave a talk to the learners about Leopard conservation, the Cape Leopard Trust in general and why protecting natural areas is so important. The learners’ enthusiasm was a treat to work with and the excitement in the room throughout the morning was tangible.

After the Cape Leopard Trust presentation, the snake park put on a snake show, causing further excitement in the hall. This excitement spilled over into the exhibition time as many excited learners came to find out more about leopards, caracals and other wildlife on our mountains.

It was a fantastic morning and an exciting start to a hopefully long relationship with these schools’ as well as the Drakenstein Municipality.

We would like to thank Margaou Prins of the Drakenstein Municipality for hosting such a wonderful morning, we believe that the learners learned a lot and we’ll hopefully be seeing many of them in the environmental sector in the future.

On Friday 9 June 2017 Environmental Educator, Catherine Kühn, took the Thrive eco-clubbers to Suikerbossie hiking trail on Table Mountain National Park’s land.  The trail is on the border of Ruyteplaats estate and it overlooks Llandudno beach and the coastline – beautiful views and perfect for a quick afternoon walk.

Catherine began the session at the school by doing a short power-point presentation on the various behavioural and morphological adaptations both plants and animals have to be able to survive in nature. The children all listened very curiously. Quite a few of them had very quick and clever answers to the questions I posed to the group, proving that these children are quite clued up on conservation issues and biodiversity.

After the presentation they were all super-hyped up to walk this "new" trail. Catherine started off by talking about the alien trees that they could see, such as the Pines, Gum trees and Port Jacksons, and what negative impacts these species have on the natural fynbos. After walking for a little while, the group emerged out of the alien stands into pristine fynbos. SANParks has been doing a fantastic job of clearing this area of aliens.

They strolled along the path, taking in the beautiful views, passing some Sugarbush proteas, Erica's, Leucadendrons and Metalasia species. They managed to get quite far before the rains started spitting on them, but this did not dampen the spirits of the very excitable group. They came across a Cliffortia plant and each child got to feel the very spikey leaves. Catherine spoke about how this plant's spikey leaves actually deter browsing herbivores, and that this is one of its adaptations to surviving in nature.

She discussed other topics related to plant and animal survival, including how the Caracal (Rooikat) has adapted to living in a very urbanized environment, and in such close proximity to humans. The Caracal is an amazing and beautifully designed creature, with many adaptations. To name a few - they possess amazing agility, speed, excellent night vision and excellent hearing. Their brownish-orange colour also helps them to blend into their surrounding and enables them to stay unseen as well as their behavioural adaptation of being nocturnal (mainly active at night time).

Some of the participants were amazed and perhaps shocked to hear that the Caracals are living in and around Table Mountain and that they come so close to the developments and houses. However, these are the truths, nature has had to adapt to a constantly changing environment, and adapting to living in close proximity to humans is just one of these struggles the plants and animals face.

We must not forget that we can do our part by continuing to appreciate and care for our fauna and flora. It is important that we continue to strive to protect our biodiversity and most importantly, tell others to do the same.

Thank you to Jemimah Birch from Kronendal School, and Thrive for the work they are doing with the children of Hout Bay. Thank you to Nick Shaw (Manager of Ruyteplaats Estate), for being willing to assist us and for your interest in our education programme.

The entry deadline for this year’s inter-school art competition has been extended by a week! Our theme is "The Essence of a Leopard". We want to honour some of the unique leopard qualities which we teach children at our camps and on day trips. Such as the role leopards play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, as a way to develop a greater understanding of how vital nature is to our well-being. Winners will have the opportunity to experience the Cederberg and seeing their art in print! Each winner will also receive a copy of the 2018 calendar and a leopard presentation at their schools. Winning artworks will be put up for auction at a Cape Leopard Trust auction event towards the end of the year in 2017. 

Entries must be received by 30 June 2017. 

The competition is open to children and youth ages 10-18. Age categories for judging will be 10-13, 14-16 and 17-18. Each artwork must have a title and the name of the artist must be accompanied by an entry form. A maximum of two entries per individual will be accepted and 20 entries per school/organisation. Submissions are accepted via email to [email protected] with "Art Competition Entry" in the subject line or by post (if received by 30 June) to:

P.O. Box Box 31139
Tokai
7966
Cape Town
South Africa

For more information visit our website: www.capeleopard.org.za.
Contact Person: Hadley Lyners
Email: [email protected]

It's that time of the year again! During the July school holidays, the Cape Leopard Trust environmental educators will be running the annual school holiday programme for 2 weeks!

Have a look at the holiday programme destinations from Monday, 3 July to Friday, 14 July. The programme is aimed at keeping your children (aged 10-18) positively engaged, entertained and safe, especially in areas where they are at a greater risk of exposure to substance abuse, drugs, violence and gangsterism.  The educational programmes on offer deal with topics and fun activities such as animals, birding, canoeing, cultural heritage, exploring leopard habitat, fynbos, looking at waste and water issues and an introduction to scientific research to mention a few.

Book your child’s spot now by contacting Catherine Kühn at 076 525 2876 or e-mail [email protected]

Download pdf: 2017 Holiday Programme Price List

We are excited to announce that we are now accepting entries for this year’s inter-school art competition! Our theme is "The Essence of a Leopard". We want to honour some of the unique leopard qualities that we teach children about on our camps and day trips, such as the role leopards play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, as a way to develop a greater understanding of how vital nature is to our well-being. Winners will have the opportunity to experience the Cederberg and seeing their art in print! Each winner will also receive a copy of the 2018 calendar and a leopard presentation at their schools. Winning artworks will be put up for auction at a Cape Leopard Trust auction event towards the end of the year in 2017.

Entries must be received by 23 June 2017.

The competition is open to children and youth ages 10-18. Age categories for judging will be 10-13, 14-16 and 17-18. Each artwork must have a title and the name of the artist must be accompanied by an entry form. A maximum of two entries per individual will be accepted and 20 entries per school/organisation. Submissions are accepted via email to [email protected] with "Art Competition Entry" in the subject line or by post (if received by 23 June) to:

P.O. Box Box 31139
Tokai
7966
Cape Town
South Africa.

For more information visit our web site at www.capeleopard.org.za.

Contact Person: Hadley Lyners
Email: [email protected]

Join the Cape Leopard Trust for a special celebration of leopards to mark World Environment Day at the renowned Zip Zap Circus on Saturday, 3 June at noon.

All funds raised will go towards the purchase of much needed new equipment for the Cederberg wilderness camp. The Cape Leopard Trust hosts over 3000 children and young people a year through its environmental education programme of outings, presentations and camps, all subsidised by the project.

Our goal is to reconnect children with their natural world and foster a greater respect and sense of caring for each other and for wildlife.

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WEBTICKETS.CO.ZA