Activities

• Jan 2009, click here to see a brief summary report of The Cook Island's Sandwatch efforts over the last several years
• December 2008, Jane Taurarii, Sandwatch  Coordinator at the Cook Island Ministry of Education, is chosen to represent Sandwatch at UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development Conference to be held in Bonn, Germany, March 2009.  
• Oct 2008, The Cook Islands Sandwatch Team registers for UNESCO's 'Good Practices Project' as part of their Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Programme, click here to see details and beautiful photos of their entry.
• July 2008, an article on the Sandwatch activities on beautiful Teoneroa Beach on Mauke Island printed in the July '08 Issue of The Sandwatcher.
• November, 2007, A full page feature story on their June Sandwatch Learners Workshop is published in the 5th issue of The Sandwatcher (Nov '07)
• June 2007, More than 100 students and educators from eleven (11) schools from all over the Cook Islands take part in an extremely successful Sandwatch Learners Conference.  Each of the seven schools then produced their own amazing PowerPoint presentations showing what they saw and accomplished on their adopted beaches.  Highlights and photos of each of these presentations are featured on the homepages of each of the school.  You can also download copies of the entire PowerPoint Presentations as well.  Please click on the schools to see their great photos, artwork, data and amazing PowerPoint presentations.

• June 2006, Article on their environment and Sandwatch activities published in inaugural issue of The Sandwatcher  newsletter
• In 2005, Nikao Maori School In Rarotonga won first prize in the UNESCO Community Sandwatch Competition with their Sandwatch project that focused on landscaping, recycling and awareness at Nikao Beach – this was despite the fact that the beach was washed out during four cyclones in February 2005. Read how a local businessman replaced the students’ beach rakes when they were stolen.
• Mauke College also entered the UNESCO Community Sandwatch competition with a project on the impact of tourism on beaches.
• During 2004-5 the Curriculum Development Unit secured funds from the UNESCO Participation Programme and used them to provide Sandwatch equipment and training workshops in every school in the Cook Islands, including the Outer Islands (with the exception of Pukapuka – one of the most remote).  Special worksheets were prepared relating Sandwatch to the Cook Islands curriculum.  Plans are to consolidate these activities in 2006 so that every school integrates aspects of the Sandwatch methodology in their teaching, and then to hold a national Sandwatch competition. Read the report on Sandwatch in the Cook Islands 2003-5
• November 2003, an introductory Sandwatch workshop for 30 primary school teachers from nine schools in Rarotonga was held 
• Ms. Natalie Fatalie of the Tereora College, Rarotonga, attended the second Sandwatch Workshop in Dominica in 2003