Biosecurity in the classroom

An exciting new biosecurity education kit is ready for its test-drive in local classrooms this month.

Officially launched by the House of Science last week, the kit is a biosecurity focussed classroom pack for school children in years 1 to 8. It is designed to engage students in hands-on science activities in the classroom and includes biosecurity activities such as bug identification, insect trapping, surveillance and border inspection.

The activities come together in a challenging board game in which players work as a team to manage a biosecurity system that holds up against some of the world’s nastiest invaders such as fruit flies and stink bugs.

The aim of this new classroom tool is to create an experience for kids and teachers that is engaging and memorable so that ideally, this awareness stays with them as they grow into tomorrow’s biosecurity champions.

Complementing the local Tauranga biosecurity excellence partnership, the biosecurity kit has been sponsored by KVH, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the Port of Tauranga and other local industries. It has been developed by Better Border Security with House of Science and is available to participating schools who book the kit for a week at a time.

Social scientists will be measuring the change in biosecurity awareness resulting from use of the kit, as well as its retention over time.