30 August 1994 Students Devote Vacation to Environmental Studies at Lincoln

One hundred and forty-three sixth and seventh form students from throughout New Zealand are this week spending part of their August holidays attending a vacation school in Environmental Science at Lincoln University.

EnviroSchool '94, under the patronage of Sir Edmund Hillary, is giving the students an opportunity to attend lectures, workshops, laboratory sessions, and field trips on a wide range of environmental topics.

Human health and climate change, sustainable resource use, "sick" homes, radiation in the New Zealand environment, national parks, marine ecosystems, the Antarctic environment, the environmental crisis in Russia and Eastern Europe, extinct birds in New Zealand, the biological control of pests, electricity generation and the New Zealand environment, the oil industry and the environment, engineering and the environment and the sacred nature of mountains are all topics covered in the week of activities.

The programme also includes a one-day field trip to Canterbury's hill-country, using Mt Somers Sheep Station as a base to explore landforms, agriculture, native bush and local quarries.

The course directors are environmental physicist Dr Graeme Buchan and limnologist Dr Bob Leonard, both of Lincoln's Soil Science Department, assisted by Betty Shore of the University's Centre for Continuing Education.

Sir Edmund Hillary will speak to the course participants by pre-recorded video link at their closing session on Friday (2/9).

This is the third EnviroSchool run by Lincoln University. Others were in 1990 and 1992.

The University sees itself as having a leadership role in environmental education in terms of its commitment to the teaching and research of natural resources and sustainable land management.

Principal sponsors for EnviroSchool '94 are Air New Zealand, BP New Zealand, ECNZ, Tī Maru Maori Trust, Hodder and Tolley Seed and Grain Merchants and Pacific Development and Conservation Trust.

Rotary Clubs throughout New Zealand have also played a key role in assisting students to attend the vacation school.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.