Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife have a project where they are eradicating invasive alien species in all of their parks. Alien plants are being removed and replaced with indigenous plants. Seedling of indigenous plants are being grown at Hillside Nature Reserve and will be distributed to all the reserves at Ukhahlamba. KZN Museum has been asked to provide expertise on earthworms and snails that might be at the nursery in order to prevent transporting, if present, the alien earthworms or snails to other reserves. The survey will also look into all the reserves to get records of what species are already present. The Hillside Nature Reserve was the first stop and alien earthworms and snails were recorded. The survey in other reserves will resume again in the next rainy season.

Photo: KZN Museum staff doing a survey at Hillside nursery

As part of Enviro Reach Outreach Education the KZN Museum’s Education Department have produced teaching materials for grades 10-12 (Life Science). The visual teaching aids that the KZN Museum produced for Life Science complements the CAPS syllabus, in order for the learners to grasp concepts easily. The overarching goal is to stimulate thinking processes, improve conceptualisation ensuring that learners achieve better grades in in this subject.

The sections covered include:

Grade 12 – Human response to the environment (sense organs) – the structure of the eye

Grade 11- Life processes in plants and animals (photosynthesis)- the structure of the chloroplast

Grade 11 – Life processes in plants and animals (animal nutrition) – the food web

Grade 10 – Life at a molecular, tissue and cellular level (organs) – the structure of the leaf