Classes in the Park – Nature Week a hit with Tokai-area learners
Press release: Friends of Tokai Park
Last week, some 600 Grade 1 through 12 learners from ten schools within a 10-kilometre radius of Tokai Park spent a thoroughly enjoyable day learning about our indigenous Fynbos at Lower Tokai Park. The five-day event, Nature Week, forms part of the Tokai Biodiversity Gateway Project, funded by the British Ecological Society (BES) and the Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET), though the Table Mountain Fund (TMF).
The Nature Week programme, spanning a morning and afternoon, used hands-on activities to work with Tokai Park’s abundant natural biodiversity and bring to life, in novel and inventive ways, the theory underpinning the learners’ Life Sciences curriculum.
Many learners voted a “scientific experiment”, led by Dr Tony Rebelo and comparing the diversity of quadrats in the plantations to those in the Fynbos, their favoured activity. The “experiment” introduced them to more than 450 species of native Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, 22 of which are Critically Endangered. In searching for and identifying different plants and animals, learners came away with a working knowledge of the most common species.
A food-web activity proved another highlight. Vividly illustrating how all nature is connected through energy transfers, learners linked different species using a rope which, when tugged (often with enthusiastic vigour), demonstrated how disrupting natural elements has cascading effects throughout nature. A small-mammals base hosted by PhD and Masters students from UCT’s iCWild programme and featuring Four-Striped Field Mice, Pygmy Mice and Vlei Rats, was also a huge hit.
Bases throughout the park were linked by a guided nature-walk, a logical extension to the popular Tokai Restoration Trail activity led by the ebullient Sidney Jacobs, who did not tire of telling his intrigued young audiences how Proteas store seeds in fireproof cones that burst open after fire, allowing the seeds to spread and new life to rise from the ashes.
Through the morning, which focused on the curriculum, learners were exposed to many important and sound ecological principles, including succession and fires; Fynbos biodiversity and restoration, and population ecology and food webs.
The afternoon Ecoclub Programme proved an enormously enjoyable event focusing on community service. It included, by way of the Restoration Trail, a brief introduction to Tokai Park followed by some competitive pulling of alien invasive Golden Wattle seedlings – a practical activity and an invaluable contribution to helping save our critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and its threatened species.
“Educational”, “Amazing” and “Fun” were the three words most commonly used in feedback from learners – many of whom were surprised to learn that, as custodians and ambassadors of Tokai Park, they are more than welcome to visit Tokai for walking, cycling, dog walking, picnics and school activities.
Grade 11s from the Cape Academy highlighted “Getting to learn in depth about small mammals, the Fynbos and that fire can actually be good” as well as “the human impact on plants and animals, getting to know the different plants and animals that grow here in Tokai”.
Assessing challenges facing the Nature Week programme, some learners voiced disappointment because “I wanted to see a snake” (Constantia Primary) and others found sketching the vegetation from Elephant’s Eye Cave to Lower Tokai Park a challenge – although they stressed their enjoyment of the exercise.
All schools are keen to participate in the City Nature Challenge from 24-27 April and help Cape Town retain its title as the most Biodiverse City of Earth, and teachers asked that Nature Week becomes an annual event as it “brings the curriculum to life.”
Acknowledgements
Taking part were Life Sciences classes from Cape Academy, Constantia Primary, Hillwood Primary, Shiloah Christian School, St Mary’s RC Primary, and Westlake Primary as well as ecoclubs from Bergvliet Primary, John Graham Primary, Norman Henshilwood High and Sweet Valley Primary.
Refreshments were provided and the Acapulco and Silver Creek Spurs donated a day’s meals. The Tokai Lions Club donated stationery and volunteered its time.
We are immensely grateful to the more than 50 volunteers from various organisations and societies who donated so many hours of their time through the week: the Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET), the City of Cape Town, SANParks, SANBI, CREW, the Botanical Society, various Friends’ groups (Zeekoevlei, Liesbeek, Sandvlei, Tokai Park, Kenilworth Race Course), iCWild from UCT and WESSA.
The Nature Week project was coordinated by Drs Alanna and Tony Rebelo, Sally Hey, Megan Smith and Ceinwen Smith (Incguncgu Project).
