Caravan gives green lessons

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Exploring bugs under a microscope or having their environmental footprint measured are only some of the activities students can enjoy in a new mobile classroom launched in Auckland recently.
The 3M Tread Lightly Caravan now travels around Auckland schools to teach its young visitors important environmental lessons.
Developed by the Urban Ecoliving Charitable Trust, the caravan is manned by qualified teaching staff.
Eight to 12-year-olds get to revel in interactive exhibits, which show the environmental consequences of individual actions.
Gael Ogilvie, the trust’s director, says the mobile classroom teaches kids about what they can do in their lives to contribute to the planet.
“The caravan is designed to inspire children to care for our environment in a fun and fully interactive way.”
Ogilvie says the exhibit’s green messages are easy to understand and linked with the NZ primary and intermediate school curricula. 
Big enough for a class of 30 children, Ogilvie hopes “all visitors leave the caravan knowing how our everyday choices – about what we buy, eat, how we heat our homes and how we travel – can make huge differences to the natural environment”.

PHOTO CAPTION: The “Eco Warriors” from Bayfield Primary School are absorbed in one of the caravan’s exhibits.