A photograph of members from SPCA Canterbury meeting with Massey University's Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT). VERT travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake in order to assist with caring for animals.
A photograph of members from Massey University's Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT) ready to depart. VERT travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake in order to assist with the caring of animals.
A photograph of members of Massey University's Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT) working in the central city red zone after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. VERT travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake in order to assist with caring for animals. Each member is wearing a hard hat, face masks, and a head lamp.
A photograph of a member of SPCA helping a member of Massy University's Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT) to load medical supplies into their vehicles. VERT travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake in order to assist with caring for animals.
On September the 4th 2010 and February 22nd 2011 the Canterbury region of New Zealand was shaken by two massive earthquakes. This paper is set broadly within the civil defence and emergency management literature and informed by recent work on community participation and social capital in the building of resilient cities. Work in this area indicates a need to recognise both the formal institutional response to the earthquakes as well as the substantive role communities play in their own recovery. The range of factors that facilitate or hinder community involvement also needs to be better understood. This paper interrogates the assumption that recovery agencies and officials are both willing and able to engage communities who are themselves willing and able to be engaged in accordance with recovery best practice. Case studies of three community groups – CanCERN, Greening the Rubble and Gap Filler – illustrate some of the difficulties associated with becoming a community during the disaster recovery phase. Based on my own observations and experiences, combined with data from approximately 50 in-depth interviews with Christchurch residents and representatives from community groups, the Christchurch City Council, the Earthquake Commission and so on, this paper outlines some practical strategies emerging communities may use in the early disaster recovery phase that then strengthens their ability to ‘participate’ in the recovery process.
Science education research shows that a traditional, stand-and-deliver lecture format is less effective than teaching strategies that are learner-centred and that promote active engagement. The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) has used this research to develop resources to improve learning in university science courses. We report on a successful adaptation and implementation of CWSEI in the New Zealand university context. This two-year project at Massey University and the University of Canterbury began by using perception and concept surveys before and after undergraduate science courses to measure students’ attitudes towards science as well as their knowledge. Using these data, and classroom observations of student engagement and corroborating focus groups, the research team worked with lecturers to create interventions to enhance student engagement and learning in those courses. Results show several positive changes related to these interventions and they suggest several recommendations for lecturers and course coordinators. The recommendations include:1. Make learning outcomes clear, both for the lecturer and the students; this helps to cull extraneous material and scaffold student learning. 2. Use interactive activities to improve engagement, develop deeper levels of thinking, and improve learning. 3. Intentionally foster “expert-like thinking” amongst students in the first few semesters of the degree programme. 4. Be flexible because one size does not fit all and contextual events are beyond anyone’s control.In addition to these recommendations, data collected at the Canterbury site during the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes reinforced the understanding that the most carefully designed teaching innovations are subject to contextual conditions beyond the control of academics.
The loss of her home in an earthquake then the loss of her daughter - for New Zealander Linda Collins, one loss shook her physical foundations; the other shook her very being. Told by Denise O'Connell [image:147046:full] [audio_play] [image:151581:half] Linda Collins has a BA in English from Massey University and is a copyeditor on the political desk of The Straits Times in Singapore, where her much-loved daughter, Victoria, took her life four years ago aged 17. Linda, husband Malcolm McLeod and Victoria were living in Singapore when the 2011 earthquake struck Christchurch, wrecking the house they owned there. Amid insurer and builder delays, the replacement house was only finally completed three years after Victoria’s death. Linda’s memoir, Loss Adjustment, is her first foray into writing a book, although she is copyeditor of the Lee Kuan Yew international best-seller, Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, and used to write for The Expat Files column in Singapore’s Sunday Times. Earlier this year, she was shortlisted for publisher Hachette’s mentorship programme, based on the submission of her Not Ash chapter from Loss Adjustment. Poetry is a new passion, meanwhile, and she is studying it at La Salle College of the Arts, Singapore. The photo is from her work pass.