Ki uta ki tai
Integrated Freshwater & Marine Education Programme
Hands-on environmental learning that connects students from the mountains to the sea.
Ki uta ki tai brings together freshwater and marine education, helping students understand how land, rivers, estuaries, and the ocean are all part of one connected system. Combining elements of Whitebait Connection (WBC), Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR), Love Rimurimu (LRR), and the National Īnanga Spawning Programme (NISP), students explore how human activity on land impacts waterways and coastal ecosystems downstream.
Ki uta ki tai connects schools with local catchment groups, beginning with freshwater learning and practical action within their own catchments. Through stream investigations, hands-on monitoring and restoration activities, students build scientific skills while contributing to meaningful, ongoing community-led projects.
Students then follow the journey downstream through estuaries to the marine environment, culminating in an Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR) snorkel experience. This approach helps students understand how the health of the land and rivers directly influences the health of the ocean, while strengthening relationships between schools, community groups and their local environment.
School Programme
STEP 1 – Discover Your Catchment: Explore how water moves through the landscape — from the mountains, through streams and wetlands, and out to the sea
STEP 2 –Explore Marine Ecosystems: Experience coastal and marine environments firsthand through guided field trips and snorkelling experiences where appropriate.
STEP 3 – Take Action: Identify ways communities can protect and restore aquatic ecosystems.
STEP 4 – Work on a restoration project: Get your hands dirty working on an existing project OR create one.
STEP 5 – Set up regular monitoring and citizen science data collection: Collect data over time on the restoration project to see how successful it is.
Tailored programmes
This is normally a programme aimed at year 9-10 or older however we can tailor packages to fit your needs. TBG attempts to source funding for school deliveries however casual-user pays programmes are also available.
Perhaps you are needing an activity for your school camp? Field trips to tie into Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC), science and mātauranga Māori?
