Frog Whistle Mine - Harper Collins New Zealand

Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine
The setting for Frog Whistle Mine is Charleston, an old mining town
about twenty kilometres south of Westport on the South Island’s West Coast.
The choice was based on the age of the rocks that form the two small bays that
are a feature of the district. They are Charleston Gneiss which, at 670 million
years, are the oldest rocks in New Zealand. Also there is the nearby Foulwind
faultline which has moved twice within the last century. Then there are the
outcrops of Hawks Crag Breccia containing pockets of uranium ore. While the
uranium ore is insufficient to be mined, many other materials have been:
limestone, mica, coal, garnets, ilmenite and, of course, gold. Enough gold to
support a population of tens of thousands (some say 30,000, others say 10,000)
in the years following discovery in 1866.
The district now has a population numbered in the hundreds, and there is
little left of the old Charleston – just one pub where there were once a
hundred. Yet the passing of the people has allowed the return of the animals, notably weka and New Zealand
fur seals. Add to this the limestone caves of nearby Paparoa National Park, the Pancake Rocks – a little further
south at Punakaiki – and there is plenty to attract adventurous tourists. There is also plenty to support a varied
learning programme covering New Zealand history, science, wildlife, and geology. These teaching notes
outline some ideas and give pointers to resources that teachers and students should find interesting and useful.
Endangered Species
Four animals are featured in the book, and each is in some way threatened or endangered. Each would
support individual or class study within several curriulum strands.
www.sunshine.co.nz/nz/24/themes/s_plans4.html has good ideas about activities with the theme
endangered.
The four animals could also be used to study the classification of animals.
Weka
Weka are now found only in small pockets of the North Island, and while they are numerous in some
parts of the South Island (such as Charleston), their range is not large and is always shrinking. It is only on
Stewart Island that they are secure, so much so they are sometimes considered a pest. Flightless rails have
always had problems coping with land development, and it seems that without help the weka may one day join
its extinct relatives: the snipe-rail,Chatham Island rail, Hodgen’s rail, North Island takahe and New Zealand
coot.
Web Resources:
www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/001~Native-Animals/Weka.asp has
information about the bird and its current status
http://www.mtbruce.org.nz/wekainfo.htm has the call of the weka.
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mikefost/ipage4.html has a children’s story of the return of the weka to
the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, near Wellington.
Other resources include:
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 1

Gill, B. and Martinson, P. New Zealand’s Extinct Birds, Random Century,1991
This covers the extinct rails.
Maxine Scur. Weka Won't Learn, and other stories for children. Viking Seavenseas, ISBN 85467-047-5
A TKI search using the keyword weka will yield several Maori language resources.
Journal articles:
Nicholls, Rae, Pickpockets, 1986 Part 3 No. 1 Pages 40-41.
Poem about weka on Kapiti Is.
New Zealand fur seal
The New Zealand fur seal has been exploited by man ever since the first colonisations. They were an
important source of food and materials for the early Maori and were later decimated by the sealers around the
beginning of the 1800s. Now they are protected and numbers are slowly increasing. Yet they are still in
conflict with man’s activities: fishermen fear that if their numbers continue to increase they will have serious
impact on fisheries. Activities related to seals and could focus on changing attitudes over time. After
researching the topic, students could present the viewpoint of: an early Maori, a sealer, a modern day
fisherman, or a conservationist.
Web Resources:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/003~Marine-Mammals/NZ-Fur-Seal.asp
http://www.forest-bird.org.nz/Marine/sealions/factsheet.asp has modern and historical information.
http://www.pinnipeds.org/species/nzslion.htm
http://www.seafood.co.nz/education/hottopic.asp discusses ways of preventing seals from being caught
during fishing.
A search of www.google.com for seal cull will yield lots of information about fishing industry attitudes
to seals.
Book Resources:
Most New Zealand history books have information on the sealers. http://history-nz.org/index.html is an
online resource.
New Zealand Geographic issue 54, Nov/Dec 2001 on pages 36-57 This article can be viewed online at
http://www.nzgeographic.co.nz/issue54/seals.php
Journal articles:
Allen, Lynne, Home for a Wayward Seal, 1990 Part 3 No. 1 Pages 30-36.
An article about a seal pup that was rescued and eventually returned to its colony.
Dallas, Ruth, The Island of Seals, 1988 Part 2 No. 1 Pages 10-20.
A fictional story of a boy who teases seals only to find they can get there own back.
Harris, Sinead, The Six Great Sleeps, 1988 Young People’s Writing, Pages 51-56
An excellent story about the history of seals and man in New Zealand told in the form of a myth.
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 2

Frogs
For several decades populations of frogs have been declining all over the world. They are now
considered to be good indicators of the environmental effects of human activities.
Web Resources:
A search of www.google.com for frog decline will yield lots of information about frogs, including
virtual disections which some students might enjoy.
http://www.ecokidsonline.com/pub/eco_info/topics/frogs/intro/index.cfm has good information for
students.
http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs/resources/tfof.html good for both student and teacher.
http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/ has good background information for teachers.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/origami/frog/ has a simple origami frog
http://www.froggyville.com/origami.htm has a complex origami frog
Other Resources:
Frogs, in issue 38, April/June 1998 of New Zealand Geographic on pages 86-109
A TKI search using the keyword frogs will yield several resources.
Journal articles:
Brasell, Jill, Changes, 1991 Pt 1 No 4 Pg 15.
Poem about metamorphosis of frogs.
McCallum, Janet, Counting Frogs, 1991 Pt 4 No 3 Pgs 32-37.
Counting the rare Hamilton’s frog on Stephens Is.
Glow-worms
Glow-worms are common in the bush and caves of New Zealand. However they can suffer from the
impact of tourism, such as smoking and the wearing of insect repellant.
Web Resources:
http://www.suzy.co.nz/suzysworld/Factpage.asp?FactSheet=236 has information plus activities
http://www.rsnz.org/archives/education/science_fairs/natfair96/23.html has a student’s science fair entry
about glow-worms.
http://tourism.waitomo.govt.nz/glowworms.htm has details on the life cycle.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/glowworm/default.htm is an Australian site that has information on
human factors that can affect glow-worms.
Book Resources:
Don Long. Glow-Worm Night. Reed, 2004 ISBN 1869486773
Journal articles:
Thomsen, Rodney, Shining glow-worms, 1995 YPW Pages 14.
Poem.
Curriculum Areas:
Science Making Sense of the Living World
Social Studies Place and Environment
Social Studies Time, Continuity and Change
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 3

Things That Glow in the Dark
Several forms of luminesence are mentioned in the book, from minerals to glow-worms, giving the
opportunity to study light in some detail, particularly its generation and absorption. These notes outline the
different ways that things glow and suggest some activities for students.
Reflectors
Road signs and reflecting white lines often give the impression of glowing in the dark, but they are only
reflectors of the light produced by cars. Most contain tiny glass beads that reflect incoming light back along
the same path. A good magnifying glass will reveal the glass beads in most reflectors.
http://www.swarco.com/downloads/upload/1095683932421_1_glassbead_brochure_engl2004.pdf is an
advertising brochure that shows how they work.
Incandescence
Light is created when something gets hot – the way in which a filament bulb work.
Phosphorescence
Phosphorescence is a delayed glow in the dark or "afterglow". Many toys are of this type. They contain
a phosphor that absorbs light energy which it re-emits after a time called the persistence. The phosphorescence
can be seen if the toy is taken from the light into the dark.
An activity for students would be to design an experiment to investigate the factors that affect the
persistence time: such as exposure time, exposure brightness, temperature.
Fluorescence or photoluminescence
Some substances take light and re-emit it at a different colour. The most common use is in day-glo
objects which take in ultraviolet light and re-emit visible light. If a black light is available (they can be hired)
students could test a wide range of objects from pens to laundry powder.
Luminescence
This is where something creates light from some other form of energy.
There are several different types.
Electroluminescence creates light from electrical energy as in neon tubes, aurora, lightning.
Thermoluminescence uses heat to generate the light. This is different to incandescence in that the
colour of the light is not dependant on the temperature. An interesting activity involves putting various
powders into a flame, preferably a blue flame. Take a wire, moisten it and dip it into one of the powders. Then
place it into the flame to see the distinctive colour. Only use small amounts of the powders as some of them
will decompose. Salt gives yellow (the same colour as sodium lamps); copper sulphate gives a blue-green;
potassium compounds such as potassium fertiliser will give lilac; calcium compounds will give red.
Chemiluminescence is a chemical reaction that creates light as in glowsticks. There are opportunities
for activities to investigate the duration of the emission and factors that affect it.
Triboluminescence occurs when some objects are hit. This is not the creation of sparks but a glow
within the material. Try bashing two quartz rocks together in the dark.
Bioluminescence is what glow-worms do including many micro-organisms. The so called
phosphorescence that we see in the sea is of this type.
http://www.amonline.net.au/explore/faqs/phosphorescence.htm has more information.
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 4

http://www.schools.net.au/edu/lesson_ideas/optics/optics_wksht5_p1.html has good photos.
Radioluminescence is where a radioactive material glows because the radiation is converted to light,
usually because of an impurity or an added substance. The added substance is a fluorescent material that
glows by absorbing the energy from the radioactive substance. In Frog Whistle Mine Jamie Duggan makes
luminescent fishing lures using radium and strontium aluminate. Radium dials were widely used in the first
half of the twentieth century. Note that the material used on modern instruments such as analogue
wristwatches is generally fluorescent and not radioactive, though some expensive watches do use
radioluminescence with prometheum or tritium as the radioactive material. Students could investigate old
watch dials to see if they are radioactive – if they glow all night, then they are radioluminescent.
A Google search will yiels many sites on radium dials and the problems experienced in their
manufacture.
Curriculum Areas:
Science Making Sense of the Material world
Science Making Sense of the Physical world
Radioactivity
Radioactivity is a theme that runs through Frog Whistle Mine, from the uranium in rocks to the fallout
of nuclear explosions. New Zealanders have played a part in this story almost from the very beginning with
the work of Ernest Rutherford, right up to the present day and our continuing nuclear free policy.
Ernest Rutherford
This theme gives the opportunity to study Ernest Rutherford and some of his discoveries. Almost
everything that is needed is covered at: http://www.roadshow.org/html/other/resources.html
Radioactive substances
Many people are surprised to find that we are surrounded by radioactive substances, and in fact are
ourselves radioactive due to carbon-14 and potassium-40. Then there are substances that we use that are more
radioactive than most: these are called sources.
http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/rad/src/list/index.html shows some common radioactive sources found
about the home.
Most smoke detectors used in New Zealand Contain the man-made radioactive element americium
(pronounced amerisium).
http://science.howstuffworks.com/smoke2.htm has several pages of information on how they work.
Radiation detectors
Making a radiation detector is for the more ambitious and could be part of a science fair project.
http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/archiv/HST2000/teaching/expt/new/new.htm
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 5

Marie Curie
Marie Curie was one of the early pioneers in the study of radioactivity. She was also one of the first
famous women in science. Her life is worthy of study and there are many resources available.
http://www.hypatiamaze.org/curiforkids/curie_kids.html is a good starting point.
Half-life
Students are often very interested in the concept of half-life, and this opens the opportunity for some
useful mathematics.
Half-life is the time for half the atoms in a sample to have decayed. This time is a constant for a
substance, no matter what the amount. It can be likened to cutting a piece of paper in half and throwing away
one of the halves because it has decayed. Then the remaining half is divided, with one piece being discarded.
The amount of paper gets smaller and smaller, until we can no longer cut it in half. A graph of area of paper
left versus cut number gives an exponential decay curve.
Attached to these notes is an activity called Last Atom Standing which students should find interesting
and informative.
When something decays it becomes another substance. For example Uranium 235 becomes lead 207
with a half-life of 704 million years. Decays like this give us a geological clock. Ernest Rutherford was one of
the first to use radioactive decay to estimate the age of the earth.
http://www.gpc.edu/~pgore/geology/geo102/radio.htm has good information on radiometric dating.
Curriculum Areas:
Science Making Sense of the Material world
Science Making Sense of the Physical world
Social Studies Time, Continuity and Change
Mathematics Measurement
Mathematics Statistics
Technology Electronics
Earthquake Prediction
Earthquake prediction is a very inexact science, yet it is likely to get better. As it does, it is sure to raise
many ethical questions for scientists. For example, if they know, with a high degree of certainty, that a severe
earthquake (say 8 on the Richter scale) is going to occur in Wellington within 2 years, should they make this
information public? If this time is reduced to 6 months, does it alter what they should do? What if they knew it
was within 7 days?
Students could debate this topic. They will find useful background material at:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/4kids/science.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/earthquakes/html/sidebar2.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html
Curriculum Areas:
Language Oral Language
Science Living World, Planet Earth
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 6

Inflated Language
In Frog Whistle Mine Rose makes believe that she is a gossip columnist. This opens the opportunity to
discuss the language of gossip, especially the use of inflated adjectives, where a word like good is replaced in
common usage by words such as fabulous, great, absolutely outstanding, earth shattering, and various
combinations of these. A number of student activities are possible such as starting with a simple adjective (Eg.
good) and creating a graded list of words each more inflated than the previous. It also gives the opportunity to
use a thesaurus. Starting words could include: bad, sad, happy, disappointed, keen, hurt, well.
A humorous aside to this activity could be to look at Victor Borge’s Inflationary Language.
http://www.kor.dk/borge/b-story-1.htm has the details
Curriculum Areas:
Language Oral Language
Language Written Language
Geological Time
At 670 million years the Charleston Gneiss is the oldest rock in New Zealand. It is a metamorphic rock
formed by heat and pressure acting on granite. Most people find it difficult to appreciate such great age. Here
is an activity that might help.
We will let 1 million years be represented by one normal sized walking step. So 670 million years will
be 670 steps away. Somewhere in the school grounds have a group step back 670 million years. Then you can
have other groups step back the following:
• 425 million years when plants first grew on the land
• 235 million years when the first dinosaurs appeared
• 65 million years when the dinosaurs disappeared
• 30 million years when the limestone of the cave in Frog Whistle Mine was formed
• 40 thousand years when the gold was deposited at Charleston
• 260 years since Abel Tasman was the first European to see New Zealand and name the spot as
Clyppygen Hoeck (Cape Foulwind)
• 5 years since Monique le Fleur disappeared in the story
Book resources for the geology of the region:
Thornton, T. New Zealand Geology, New Zealand, Reed 1985
Pages 22 to 24 cover Charleston
Curriculum Areas:
Mathematics Geometry and Measurement
Science Planet Earth
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 7

Map Coordinates
Tony in Frog Whistle Mine uses a simple tile game to map the mine so that he can keep track of the
places he has searched. A similar activity introduces the idea of map or Cartesian coordinates. It is similar to
the game Battleships.
Students work in pairs. Each player draws a map of a mine on squared paper sticking to the lines.
Significant finds such as gold, body, uranium, glow-worms, greenstone are marked on the map. The squares
are then labelled either using Cartesian coordinates or a map/spreadsheet system with letters across the top
and numbers running down. The coordinates to the opening are made public.
Then each player must advance through the other’s mine by giving coordinates. A player’s turn
continues until they give a coordinate that is in rock. The other player than has their turn.
Some other rules will be needed such as the width of the tunnels, the objects to be found and perhaps the
number of lines. A simple plan is given below.
1
2
3
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
4
5
6
7
U
8
9
10
11
12 B
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23 G
24
25
26
Opening is K26
Q23 contains gold
S4 contains uranium
M12 contains a body
Curriculum Area:
Mathematics Algebra and Statistics
Social Studies Place and Environment
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 8

Last Atom Standing
Last atom standing is an activity that will introduce the idea of radioactive decay and half-life.
Radioactive decay of an atom is a random event, and to simulate it we must also use random events.
1. Below is a table of randomly generated numbers ranging from 1 to 6 – the numbers on a dice.
2. Each student is allocated a row in this table.
3. All students stand. They each represent an atom of a radioactive substance.
4. The teacher rolls a dice for Throw One.
5. All students whose Throw One number matches the dice sit down. They have decayed.
6. The number still standing is recorded.
7. Steps 4, 5 and 6 are repeated for Throw Two, Throw Three, etc.
8. The simulation stops when only one person is left standing, or it can continue until none are
standing.
Student
Name
Throw Throw Throw Throw Throw Throw Throw Throw
1,9,17 2,10,18 3,11,19 4,12,20 5,13,21 6,14,22 7,15,23 8,16,24
1 6 1 5 2 1 5 3
2 6 2 4 1 1 2 6
6 3 1 5 1 1 2 1
6 5 3 1 4 4 2 5
4 3 1 6 5 2 3 6
1 5 3 1 4 3 4 4
6 1 3 6 5 4 2 4
6 2 2 5 3 2 4 1
4 2 5 4 6 4 4 1
6 6 5 4 2 2 2 2
2 1 5 5 6 3 2 1
4 1 4 4 5 4 4 1
1 2 4 4 6 1 5 6
4 6 4 3 3 2 6 1
1 5 5 5 2 2 1 6
1 6 1 6 6 2 5 6
6 3 4 1 5 4 3 3
6 5 4 5 1 4 6 6
1 6 2 6 4 4 2 6
3 3 6 2 4 4 6 3
2 6 2 4 5 1 5 3
1 1 1 5 2 2 2 4
1 4 3 2 1 1 1 1
5 4 6 5 1 6 4 5
2 6 5 2 2 4 5 5
5 2 6 1 6 1 1 6
2 5 2 4 2 1 5 6
6 6 2 3 3 3 3 1
4 4 4 3 4 2 1 3
6 5 2 5 2 2 4 3
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 9

Here is a typical set of the results.
Throws 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Number
standing 30 24 20 15 12 12 10 8 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 2 1
The number standing halved to 15 in three throws. So three throws is the approximate time of the halflife.
Therefore the number standing should halve again to 7 or 8 by throw six. It doesn’t, due to the small
number of atoms.
If we had more atoms we would get the dashed line shown in the graph below. The half-life is 3.7
throws.
Number Standing
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Last Atom Standing
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Throws
Teaching Notes for Frog Whistle Mine Page 10