The enthusiasm of the Ngunguru School Yr 7 & 8 EarthED weedbusters was infectious, some didn’t seem to want to stop!
Year 7 and 8 students at Ngunguru School joined SWAT as part of their EarthED programme to learn how to identify plant pests that are invading our coast and get amongst it with some weed busting Ngunger’s style at Snells Point.
Following a classroom workshop on how to identify our ‘Dirty Dozen‘ – 12 initial target plant pests that are invading our coast, the students had a field trip in the last week of Term. In teams their first mission was to see if they could identify and record the weeds numbered in a scavenger hunt style game through the reserve and recall the names of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ plant samples provided in anonymous bags .
Plants they couldn’t identify were photographed and uploaded to iNaturalist for identification back in the classroom. Some of the plants in the hunt were garden escapee’s (like Agapanthus, Aloe Vera and Fairy Crassula) reinforcing that every plant has its place and how a weed can be a plant in the wrong place at times!
After the identification session teams were targeted at the small pull-able weeds that could easily be reached in the reserve.. much to our surprise this enthusiastic bunch managed to pull out 100’s of weeds.. Moth Plant, Cotoneaster, Climbing Asparagus, Brush Wattle, Pink Jasmine, Mexican Devil, Mist Flower, Pampas and many, many more!
Thank you for all your help Year 7 & 8 Ngunguru School EarthED Students!