Fence

The first stage of the fence protection system is up. We now need to decide on whether to paint the exposed fence before we begin the planting along the fence line. Overtime the plan is that the plants will use the fence sculpture as a support to grow up, so adding a further barrier to stop the graffiti vandalism. Also if we can raise further funds we will begin adding more sculptural elements to the fence reflecting the biodiversity of the region.

Enviro Mini Golf

Students from last year who developed ideas for a mini golf course with an environmental theme are putting in an application to the WWF Environmental Education Action Fund. The images below are some of the initial concept ideas and if they are successful with their application then we could be having the first enviro golf championship next year!

Playground

Henri van Zyl an engineer based in Whangarei came in to school to day to talk to the Playground group. It was a chance for the students to have professional input to their work and has given us valuable feedback. We are now going to organise a weekend workshop to develop the ideas, build a model and get the project moving along.

Once this has been done we can then get costings sorted out and visit the Council to present the ideas, get feedback and fine tune the designs. Then it will be a simple case of getting loads of money to build it!

We will stay in contact with Henri, so he can continue to give advice on the students progress.

This work will be also form part of the students application to the Neighbourhood Engineers Awards.

Community Expo

Last Saturday Dargaville had its Christmas Parade and Community Expo. I had a small display showing the High School students work. These photos were before people arrived, I had some good comments from people and suggestions for protecting the fences from graffiti. One was to camouflage the fences, which is something some of the students also looked at.

Spider Web Drain Cover

The storm drain which runs through the site ends at an unsightly grate over the tunnel, which captures rubbish, well some of it.

The students who have taken on this problem have been looking at spider webs as way to design a grill to stop the rubbish entering the pipe. As well as being a great idea, they are looking to extend the design as to act as a focal point for the area, by making the web cover the ugly bit of fencing above the drain. They will be looking at various webs from native spiders over the next week as they refine their design and also thinking about the possibilities of including a filtering system to improve the quality of the water before it enters the Northern Wairoa river.

Super Furry Fence

Through our work looking at ways in which animals, plants and insects protect themselves, these students have been developing ways to protect the fences from graffiti. This is example is using nylon bristles and they are going to try out a range of materials to see what works best. It is not just protecting the fences but also to make them look aesthetically pleasing as well. next week we hope to try out various materials on a full scale mock up. The top image as been photoshoped as we are also looking at including light into the design as well.

Mini Golf Course

What every town needs is a mini golf course and hopefully these are the boys who will be providing Dargaville with its very own course. Work is ongoing but they have been working on designs for the 9 holes and the first is based on the clock tower on the old post office building. Other ideas are to use aspects of the landscape and buildings in the region to include in the course.

Green House

This group have been looking at seating and shelter in Gordon St. In the past a house stood on the site, but due to flooding, hence the storm drain, the house was moved. So the idea will be to recreate a room of the house as the seating area. The image shows the idea, but also to offer shelter it is hoped to build a structure based on the outline of the old house. The roof will then provide a space for a living roof, which is another one of their ideas. I will post the house image when it is completed.

Playground

The playground design has been updated and now includes the worlds only DNA slide/ladder, well we think it is the worlds only one. There are more things to add including incorporating the periodic table into the design, chromosomes, molecules and many other things. One thing I found when looking at playgrounds was a very interesting project in Ghana, where a push roundabout has been built, which not only provides children with fun, but it also generates electricity to charge up LED lamps for use in the school and home, brilliant. We shall keep you posted. Also in researching playgrounds I have found some interesting sites and will list them for your information.

Students Ideas for Gordon St.

I have been working again with Year 10 science students and Mr Barnes their teacher. We have started by looking at a number of ideas and designs which have been inspired by nature, for example camouflage. We looked at a short film on biomimicry,

There are lots of interesting videos on YouTube and sites such as AskNature, which provide more information on biomimicry. 


I have added some of the students early work, so we can see how it develops overtime, we hope to have the design stage finished before the end of the year, so we can move on to the fun stage of writing funding applications.

Gordon St. Trip 2

Completing the data gathering and water testing at Gordon St.

Waipoua Trip 2

Some photographs from the second trip to the Waipoua Forest to test water quality in the stream. We are now going to analyse the data gathered on the trips to Waipoua and Gordon St. and start planning how we can improve the water in the storm drain running through the Gordon St reserve.

As well as water quality we will be developing some ideas based on what we have found in the water to develop an art project, which will form part of the overall strategy to combat graffiti vandalism in the area.

DHS Science Trip Waipoua Forest

As part of the project research in finding ways to clean the water in the storm drain running through Gordon St. I tagged along with science students from Dargaville High School on their field trip to Waipoua Forest.

We are comparing and contrasting the water from the stream running through part of the forest with water in the storm drain. It doesn't take much to see the difference between the two, but the challenge will be to come up with ways to clean the water in the storm drain.

Next week we will all go to Gordon St. and repeat the testing their and then get the students to look at ideas to clean the water. The ultimate goal is to be able to clean and store the water from the drain and use it to irrigate the plants in the planned vertical gardens.

(Spot the photograph from the storm drain.)