Throughout next year, the world’s leading sailors will be competing in the Sail Grand Prix, providing ākonga with inspiration to design technologies to harness the power of the wind.
Buoyed by the strong uptake during the America’s Cup, Yachting New Zealand is once again offering ‘Kōkōkaha – Powered by Wind’ to schools and kura around the country this coming summer.
Classroom experiences include hands-on activities to help ākonga learn about the power of the wind. Sailing experiences include going sailing to feel the power
of the wind and interacting with a set of resources to understand how sailing technologies work.
Royal Oak Primary School teacher Mel Topp says the implementation of the programme is a breeze. “It is all online for us to use, there is nothing difficult about it at all, and kids are really passionate about what they do and are really engaged.”
When asked whether she would recommend Kōkōkaha to other schools Mel replies emphatically, “Why would they not? Absolutely 100 percent.”
Yachting New Zealand sport development director Raynor Haagh says, “We are updating Kōkōkaha
to align it to the Sail Grand Prix and have added some more providers to increase the sailing experience options for schools and kura, and are hoping to have even more schools involved with the programme this coming summer.
“We have also started working with the Motu Kairangi Kāhui Ako to develop a second module called ‘Kōrinorino – In Our Ancestors’ Wake’,” explains Raynor.
During this module, ākonga focus on the settlement history of their local area. Classroom experiences focus on the history of settlement of New Zealand at the national and local levels.
Sailing experiences focus on what it was like for our ancestors to sail to New Zealand, with a
focus on the science and maths used in a range of navigation approaches.
Kōrinorino will be available to schools and kura in Wellington from term 1 2022 and to the rest of the country from term 4 2022.
Read more about In Our Backyard projects