Silverstream School - Erin Edmonds
2024 | ‘Drive It Down - Measuring and Mitigating School Gate Transport Emissions’
Name: Erin Edmonds
School: Silverstream School
Programme: ‘Drive It Down - Measuring and Mitigating School Gate Transport Emissions’
Region: Wellington
Host: GNS (Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences)
The Science Teaching Leadership Programme is an incredible opportunity to develop the capacity of educators and drivers in championing Science at Silverstream School.
The School’s Science curriculum has a focus on growing western science and indigenous knowledge systems to support scientific understandings and develop critical scientific thinking in their ākonga in authentic, ‘real life’ contexts.
Over the last year, Erin has been a dedicated specialist Science teacher full time teaching across all year levels. Her participation in the Science Teaching Leadership Programme will be invaluable to grow the school’s programme and our capacity to deliver a high-quality, engaging and locally focused curriculum for their kura.
Partnering with GNS as their host organisation, is a great opportunity to collaborate on issues that their ākonga can investigate, apply their learning, and take an active role in influencing social actions and outcomes to improve their world.
Erin has spent eight years as a teacher across years 2 - 6 at Silverstream School. She has experience in applied Science in her previous life, working as an Environmental Health Officer in the Nelson region, and later as a Health Protection Officer with public health services in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington Regions. There she managed portfolios in biosecurity, water quality, infectious disease outbreaks, chemical incident response, emergency management, pandemic planning and public health effects of pest control operations.
Erin has combined her love of both Science and teaching becoming fully immersed in her lead Science role at Silverstream School. The past year has been a great opportunity for her to focus on teaching and learning through the Nature of Science strand.
She has a keen interest in Mātauranga Māori and spent the last year upskilling in te Reo through the Ministry of Educations ‘Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori’ language course, and learning about ‘Mātauranga Māori and Science’ through the University of Waikato’s summer school.
Erin is super excited about her involvement in the Science Teaching Leadership Programme, hoping to gain invaluable experience in the ‘life of a real scientist’ through her placement with GNS. She will be working with the Carbon Watch Urban team on the “Drive It Down - Measuring and Mitigating School Gate Transport Emissions” programme. Carbon emissions and the impact on our environment and future generations is one of the leading issues we are faced with as a global community. GNS is world leading in their research and drive to decrease carbon emissions at source, particularly in the urban environment. Erin will be involved with sensor maintenance and calibration, sample site selection, data gathering and analysis, school engagement and outreach.
She hopes to develop sustainable partnerships with GNS to bring back to her kura and offer authentic experiences for students to participate actively in science in the real world, leading to growing a community and generation of changemakers for good.