Challenge

Having updated its educational programme for Year 7 and 8 students -- Firewise -- the New Zealand Fire Service contracted Educating NZ to develop and design a CD-ROM for teachers and another for students. They also needed a guide to help firefighters with school visits as Be Firewise educators.

Approach

We worked with teachers, students, fire safety experts and frontline firefighters to develop the resources. The teachers’ CD-ROM has unit plans, links to the New Zealand curriculum, activities, fact and resource sheets and media clips. The students’ CD-ROM features interactive games, fact sheets, media clips and quizzes. The guide suggests ways for firefighters to work with students using the CD-ROMs as a basis for content. We also scoped a resource for Year 1 and 2 students, and made recommendations regarding existing resources.

What’s happening now?

There is a high degree of awareness and uptake of Be Firewise. Overall, 95 percent of schools responding to an evaluation survey conducted by Martin Jenkins in 2007, reported awareness of Be Firewise and 92 percent had taught the programme since its inception. Of schools that delivered the programme, more than half (55 percent) reported teaching it most recently in 2006 or 2007. The vast majority (89 percent) have taught Be Firewise at some point in the last three years. The full evaluation report is available on the NZ Fire service website.

The NZ Fire service is intending to revise the Be Firewise resources for years 1 and 2 students in light of the Martin Jenkins evaluation