PBL (Project Based Learning) Showcase 

There are great things happening with the PBL groups at Fiordland College.

Here are some snippets of what they have been doing.

Well done to Wade Parkinson who took a lot of these photos. 

 Agriculture (Ag) - Horse Group 

In June, the Horse Ag group went to Sam Spaan’s farm - Steepdown Horses.

Sam is a local hoof trimmer and has a lot of expertise and knowledge on this, as well as nutrition and horsemanship. 

We learnt about the anatomy of the hoof, caring for a horse's hoof and what the trimming tools were used for.

Some of us had a go at this.

We also brushed two of her horses - Havana and Willow.

We talked a little about horse behaviour in a herd and that Willow was the boss.

We are hoping to have another day with Sam to learn about the digestive system, nutrition and groundwork.

We had a great time and learnt a lot.

Thank you to Sam and Mrs Shelley Wilson.  

Written By Iris Spence, Esme Duncan, Tara Speight, Ada Horrell and Nikita Anderson.

Rogaine 

As part of Project Based Learning three of our students, Jemima Hoskin Y9, Piper Hoskin Y7 and McKenna Matheson Y7, partnered with Andy Magness to plan a Rogaine that was held in the Margin Forest. 

They designed and set the course, managed the logistics, made the maps and ran the event that saw a huge number of participants.

They are now in the process of planning their next event. 

Enviro Water Park  

The Enviro Water Park crew has been designing and building mountain bike jumps at the Water Park.

These jumps started over 15 years ago with some sketchy wooden ramps and stump jumps and have slowly been added to by a generation of bikers. 

This year they have reached new heights!

The group had a vision and worked together to create something for the whole community.

The process of design-build-test and repeat is a constant theme.

When not building, they have researched career opportunities in track building, gained inspiration from around the world, and studied the physics of bike jumping.

They have also brought the school mountain bike track back to life.  

The senior students have shown leadership, the teamwork has been awesome, and the students have approached local contractors for support and involved parents.  

A true student-led passion project!  

Engineering 

We are very fortunate that Dave Hertzog (Hedgehog) has been giving up his Fridays to work with a group of students on some engineering projects as part of our PBL program.  

The group cleaned and reorganised the metal workshop and their first project has been restoring a quad bike.

They will start working on a go-kart and trailer in the coming weeks.  

Huge thanks to Hedgehog for this incredible opportunity.  

Agricultural (Ag) - Group Planter Boxes 

Making six planter boxes for food production was a task undertaken by 15 boys in the Agriculture PBL group.

Like most building projects, there were hurdles to surmount, but in the end, they made the boxes, filled them with soil, painted them, and landscaped the area immediately around them.  

Plantings include grapes, blueberries, garlic, spring onions, and potatoes. 

The time of year has made determining what to plant problematic, but future plans will see a range of crops and fruit being produced there.  

Our thanks to Carran Scott for donating the soil and gravel, and Placemakers for supplying the timber at cost.

Thanks too to the boys for their hard work. 

Enviro Group 

Bird Documentary Team (Tarn, Jodi, Fergus and Noah).

Four students have produced a short video covering Fiordland bird species. 

The Scooter Gang (Carter, Lukas, Oscar & Hayden together with four students from the Community Group) focused on designing new ramps for a 'portable skatepark' to be used around school. 

The sewing room saw some use, as a group of students (Kaytlyn, Karmen, Alice and Riley) decided to upcycle items of clothing that would otherwise end up in the landfill. 

 Mission Marine students (Jazz, Isla and Arty) worked on a documentary highlighting the effects of pollution and climate change on the Fiordland marine environment, while the South 

Island Robin Monitoring group (Ianthe, Mahe, Gwylam and Nina) established a monitoring programme in the Kepler area to be continued over the next few years. 

Worlds 

Students in the Worlds PBL group set out on a mission to explore and map our natural environment or create an environment of their own in a video game. 

 Students involved in the Natural World Mapping side of Worlds PBL group spent a lot of time in Ivon Wilson Park, the College grounds, Upukeroa river areas, and the new subdivision, exploring and 

recording different tracks. 

 Students involved in the Digital Worlds side of Worlds PBL invested a lot of time developing sprites, environments, and an awareness of how to effectively code computer programs so that their characters could navigate the worlds they had created. 

Community Group 

In the Community PPBL group we had a big range of projects each with the aim of benefitting our community.

Examples of projects are as follows:  

• Cooking and baking for local Mainly Music and the food bank. 

• Presenting to the Community Board about improvements to the local skate park and the possibility of creating a dog park in Te Anau.  

• Creating a children's story and puppet show for children at ECE centres. 

• Working with the children at Te Anau School and Southern Stars. 

• Stoat line trapping. 

• Tree planting. 

• Designing and creating a Lilliput Library. 

• Designing and creating cards for Matariki hampers. 

• Researching teenage mental health. 

 The students took a great deal of time planning these projects, looking into costs, completing research and ordering materials.

As a result, there have been and will continue to be great improvements to the local area and positive connections made between the students at Fiordland College, and the people and organisations in our local community.

The teachers of the community group are very proud of what the students have accomplished in the past 10 weeks and we hope it has given them a spark to continue to help their community in the future. 

Fiordland College proudly sponsored by Milford Road Alliance