Biodiversity Room:

Biodiversity is the whole variety of living organisms, the genetic difference between them and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur. It is the natural wealth of the earth that supplies important ecological services to us as humans, such as cleaning the air, supplying us with oxygen, exchanging the energy of the sun, purifying water, feeding the soil, rooting the soil, pollination of plants etc. Our biodiversity is threatened in the following ways: habitat loss, invader species, pollution, poaching and over consumption.

The theme for the JNF WSEC Biodiversity Room is: Food for all.

One of our environmental dilemmas we face today is to provide food for all people. By using the theme ‘food for all’, we include humans, animals and plants and investigate their ecosystems in which they occur and what they need to live and survive.

Programmes offered:

Grade 4: Sensory Trail (Natural Sciences, Arts and Culture)

This activity attempts to give learners an opportunity to discover their environment by using their senses. A sensory trail explores the whole school environment and allows learners to see, hear, touch, smell and taste.

Grade 5: Interdependence (Natural Sciences)

Everything in our natural world is interconnected. Green plants are the producers of food for all living things. To do this plants need water, air, soil and energy from the sun. Pollination is a very important for plants to survive and it is important for a garden to attract the pollinators that do this important work for us. To encourage pollination, it is necessary to have a poly-culture garden as opposed to a mono-culture garden.

Grade 6: Soil Study (Natural Sciences, Social Sciences)

(This activity can also be adapted for Grade 8)

Do you think that soil is a non living, dead substance that we walk on every day? Come to our centre to find that soil is life. Without soil there would be no food. Today our soil is being depleted by activities such as soil erosion, agriculture, fertilisers, insecticides and the like. See what you can do for the soil, by going on a soil doctor trail in the permaculture garden. Learners discover the magic of a compost heap by investigating the life in it and also by building a compost heap. There is also an underground cave where you can meet some of the animals who live there.

Grade 7: Wildlife in the school garden (Natural Sciences, Arts and Culture)

Learners explore wildlife right in the school garden. We do not have to go to the Kruger Park to see wildlife, we have plenty right at our doorstep. People have destroyed the natural environments by the buildings they put up, but nature can be brought back into the city. This can be done by providing food and shelter in your garden for wildlife to live. Come and meet our characters that live in Nelson Mandela Park and you will be surprised at how people and animals need each other right in the city. But most of all: go and try this in your own garden.

Grade 10-12: Indigenous Knowledge

The centre has an indigenous medicinal garden where such issues can be explored.