The second day started for the young people at 11am, because the All Blacks, our NZ rugby team, were playing France and I wanted to watch. It was a tight game and the All Blacks won 34-32. I told the young people I was excited that the All Blacks won.
We started the day with "Leopard is Hungry" and then headed to the classroom. I did this because we had to learn more, so they could create a story. Then we used a drama convention called "Role on the Wall':
"Each group becomes a species—a tree, mammal, bird or reptile. They choose one species to work with. They draw the outline of the species on large paper. Inside the outline, they write:
What I need to survive
What I fear
My strengths and what I give to others
My hopes
Outside the outline, they add:
Threats/ predators/ competition
Human impacts
Climate change
When a problem is introduced (for example, drought), young people return to the outline and add or change what their species is feeling and experiencing."
They didn't quite finish, but they had their heads down.
Here is the Black Rhino group's work. ChatGPT darkened and tidied up the writing so we could read it, as before it was in light pencil. The image is theirs.
Not everything was added to these drawings. They talked to me and each other. We are all learning. After our conversation, I learnt that rhino horns grow back within two years if they are chopped off (like finger and toe nails). I put this in as that is why this is called co-creating. We are working together and learning together.
There were also fact sheets on the species.
Here is a caracal (a cat). The words were also tidied up with ChatGPT. The drawing is drawn by the young people.
This is the black mamba.
I think hugger here is hunter.
This is the lilac-crested roller bird. I darkened this in ChatGPT, so we could read it clearly.
We have enough to proceed to create a story. I was so inspired by their focus, gathering information, and their drawings. They went off to lunch, and came back at 1.30.
As they came back from lunch, I gave them books that other young people from New Zealand had created to read.
It was time to look at how a New Zealand school had created the books. This was to give them an idea of the world being different yet also the same, of how flora and fauna around the world differ, and of how climate change is affecting native species.
And how young people everywhere can create stories.
Could we increase native species, which are struggling with the rhino everywhere? When you watch the video, see what species you can identify, that are similar to the rhino, that NZ is trying to increase their numbers in the same way. It was time to introduce Ru.
It is time to enter the publishing company New Earth. I put on the red scarf. I become Ru, as shown at the beginning of the video. After entering with Ru, they were ready in the publishing company to create stories.
Sometimes things don't go according to plan.
Katso and I thought it best to divide the group into two and create two stories, so she could assist one group, and I could work with the other.
Ru (not real) is Ruakura's grandchild. N.Z born, Ruakura wanted to introduce species from protected islands onto the mainland.
Ru says "It is lovely to be in Botswana and be with you. You are the first to create a story as a group, as we did in N.Z. What I would like is to have more wildlife sanctuaries and maybe more wildlife here at the SOS village. Not sure about lions and maybe. You already live with other cats.
I am excited about your trip to Khama Rhino Sanctuary tomorrow. Let's hope you see lots of rhinos. I am here to create a story with you. So Let's Go. I want to read a story about Kuaka. This was one of the stories created in the last cohort I led."
Ru reads it. "This is how I want you to work together. Focus on completing a story. Play your part in your group and fly together."
Ru says "Let's read 'Let's Go Biodiversity', which I wrote." They have one copy among three. Some read. Here is a part of that book. https://canva.link/f2arldnzs8a5q3r
We have two of the older leaders in each group. Each group chooses a species from the sheets on the table and from their journal. They look through their journal. One group chooses the Black Rhino. The other group chooses the Lilac-breasted Roller.
We work through the book Ru has created called Let's Co-Create and Share an African Story about Native Species Thriving. Ru skips a few pages because some things in the book have already been covered, and we have only an hour and a half left to create two stories. They have one book between the three of them, and we take turns reading each page. (with some pages skipped.)
https://canva.link/6h2eeu36yf8jgkx
They work through questions to answer with Katso and Ru. They find facts, describe where the species' habitat is, and where they are within it (six dimensions). Then they find a problem and offer ideas to solve it. They talk it through, and a scribe writes the answers to the questions. They are definitely focused. They chose an African spirit to tell the story.
This is the last step in the book. Six pages for the story, a life-cycle page, and a title page.
They create their two stories. Let's Go, Black Rhino first. This one I work on in class, and then read it to them. They like all of it. Phew!
https://canva.link/oomktmver3hovm6
Then we have Let's Go, Lilac-breasted Roller. I will work on this one overnight and ask in the morning if there was anything they don't like about it.
Ru says goodbye. Everyone signs out of the company.
I become Robin again. After the weekend they will illustrate each page of the story, and draw the life cycle of the Black Rhino and the Lilac-breasted Roller.
Then Katso gave them the safety talk and the final preparations for tomorrow - we are going to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary!