our exhibits
Our exhibits will be housed in three themed areas:
- At home
- Outside
- Shopping
Each area will comprise 3-4 interactive exhibits and some extra activities, such as viewing our rainwater collection system, our worm farm and our solar heating panel. Our internal walls will be covered with extra fun and interesting stuff ranging from Maori legends about healing plants, to waste exhibits, to amazing images of the beauty of nature. We will also have a high-powered digital microscope attached to a large screen. Visitors will be able to select items to magnify and view.
The following describes a few of our exhibits and activities. We are still looking for "naming" sponsors for some of these exhibits. Please contact us if you would like to find out more about these exhibits or the many more we are developing for the Tread Lightly Caravan experience.
Our Environmental Footprint
In this exhibit, the children will answer questions about their lifestyles (e.g. how they get to school, what is in their lunch boxes) and, depending on their responses, a footprint shaped light will shine on the floor in front of them. This will be sized to reflect the energy, material and water resources consumed by the students in a given day. The children will walk through this footprint, which will graphically demonstration their consumption of resources.
The Wisdom of Plants
The children will work together to play a life-size game of “Lizards and Vines” demonstrating how we can look after our animal and plant resources. The dice will be colour coded with each colour relating to a pile of question cards providing opportunities for moving ahead. The cards will be based on information related to the ‘wisdom of plants’ and their many uses for food, health, medicine, habitat and clothing. The emphasis will be on native plants and traditional Maori uses of these plants.
How far do you go?
The TLC will have a smartboard with a large screen showing a map of the immediate area (say 10 km radius) of the parked location. The children will select a day in their lives (e.g. a Tuesday or a weekend) and will track all the typical car journeys taken during that day onto the smartboard using a special coloured pen. The connected computer will calculate how many kms have been travelled and how much carbon dioxide has been emitted. This will be compared to an average child in New Zealand and other similarly developed countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and the States.
The Great Lunchbox Challenge
The children will visit a store selling food products typically purchased for school lunch boxes. They will be asked to select the items that will ensure specified, acceptable, levels of environmental emissions (e.g. waste generated, water consumed, greenhouse gases emitted) are not exceeded. As the children scan the selected lunch food products, the screen will provide an output of the environmental impact. The objective will be to fill the lunch box with products that have minimum environmental effects.
