Monitoring at Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Orokonui Ecosanctuary on the Otago Peninsula includes a crèche for Haast tokoeka kiwi chicks. These are the rarest of kiwi chicks, and only a very small percentage survive to adulthood in the wild.

The chicks are hatched in the wild and then brought to the crèche, where they are cared for until they reach 1.2kg and can protect themselves against stoats.

The chicks are housed in a fenced area that has gates through which visitors enter the 14-hectare crèche. The chicks need to be kept separate from the adults, as the adults will pick on the younger kiwi. There are four gates in the sanctuary. Visitors leaving gates open can be catastrophic for these precious birds.

Tony Stewart, one of the volunteers, identified the need for a monitoring system to alert volunteers that a gate had been left open. Tony could also see that long-term monitoring of multiple aspects of the sanctuary environment could also be possible. 

This real need turned into a very successful scholarship project for William Satterthwaite, top scholar in technology in 2016.

Possible learning intentions

Students will: 

• develop design ideas for feasible outcomes that are justified with evidence gained through functional modelling and consultation with multiple stakeholders, and test design ideas from a range of perspectives 
• explain the role of technological modelling in making informed, responsive, and defensible design and development decisions 
• explain the operational parameters established for particular technological systems and explain the factors that influenced these 
• undertake prototyping to gain specific evidence of an outcome’s fitness for purpose and use this to justify any decisions to refine, modify, and/or accept the outcome as final 
• justify the fitness for purpose, in its broadest sense, of technological outcomes in relation to:
  • design and development 
  • manufacture 
  • evaluation and analysis of technological outcomes.

Coming up with a project that will give students access to a technology scholarship can be challenging. In this instance, Julie McMahon, William’s digital technologies teacher, brought this project to his attention.

Andrew Hornblow from Skills had run a workshop in Dunedin on the Internet of Things (IOT). The IOT is the networking of devices to the Internet to enable the collection of data.

The IOT is trending in the world of digital technologies and has excited many industry experts and consumers with its possibilities. Using the IOT for networking electronic sensors within an eco-setting added an element of originality to this submission (one of the requirements of an outstanding scholarship submission; see scholarship technology).

Tony attended this workshop and discussed the need for gate monitoring with Andrew. Julie introduced William to Andrew as an industry mentor, and discussions began on a technology scholarship project with a focus on monitoring systems for the sanctuary. Tony also acted as a stakeholder and assisted William in gaining feedback from the team of volunteers.

This authentic, local community problem with diverse aspects gave William the opportunity to research in depth from multiple angles for a proposed solution. Through this, he was able to demonstrate an understanding of all three strands of the technology learning area (a requirement of scholarship technology).

Developing the solution involved substantive technological modelling of ideas, research, and understanding of technological systems. At Level 8 of the technology learning area, students are expected to be able to understand operational parameters and their role in the design, development, and maintenance of technological systems (Achievement objective: Level 8, technological systems).

This project demanded a high level of understanding of the boundaries and/or conditions within which the monitoring system was designed to function as well as the influence of factors associated with the technical feasibility and social acceptability of the system.

Knowledge of technological products was also required, as the materials used had to withstand being located in an outdoor setting.

The nature of technology within this context included such things as an in-depth exploration of the socio-cultural needs of the stakeholders. Some examples of the questions William explored as part of his system development included: 

• What devices and representations of alerts would suit the volunteers? 
• What was the best way to develop a system that would suit the socio-cultural context of a volunteer organisation with limited funding? 
• How could the system be set up in a way that others could continue to maintain and develop it further in the future without incurring major costs?

Technological practice is inherent in this project. The brief and specifications were developed and refined along the way. William acknowledged that his project management approach, with ongoing interaction with stakeholders and testing, aligned more closely with the agile approach to project management than the waterfall approach.

Some of the many technical considerations when developing the monitoring system included: 

• the best dynamic graphing system to use to depict the data 
• deciding on a server that could store and process data, was stable, that William was familiar with, and had minimal cost 
• using a language system to display the data as customisable graphs that would suit users and be future-proofed 
• protecting personal user data 
• integrating data so that the system would send out tweets, SMS text messages, and/or emails 
• ensuring all major browsers would give an acceptable response time for a user within an acceptable network speed and hardware setup
• developing standardised systems so that additional modules could be built in the future for other sensors in other places in the sanctuary, for example, sound (recording bird calls), trap status (sensors in traps to see if traps have closed), and cameras on the waterways to show if stoats are getting through the gates 
• determining radio transmitter systems and frequencies that would ensure reliable data transport and showed respect for others who may be using the same transmitting frequency 
• managing power supply to the sensors 
• security of the sensor data to prevent false readings and/or injecting false data to interrupt the real database.

It is obvious from this list that the project was rich in sophisticated integration and abstraction (a criterion for an outstanding technology scholarship award).

Schematic diagram for gate sensors and connections.

Schematic diagram for radio receiver picaxe to raspberry pi collector module version 2.

In its broadest sense, "fitness for purpose" refers to the "fitness" of the outcome itself as well as the practices used to develop the outcome. Demonstrating an understanding of this concept is a requirement for a successful scholarship submission.

When a technological outcome is created with fitness for purpose in its broadest sense in mind, on-going maintenance requirements are addressed as part of the design. William specifically chose to use open-source software and extensively documented the functioning of the system so that others could easily continue developing it.

The modular nature of the system also meant that upgrades could be installed and malfunctions could be corrected without disrupting the whole system, keeping ongoing maintenance simple.

Ethical testing was apparent as the system was tested in situ and with volunteers from the sanctuary.

The modular approach ensured optimisation of the prototype. The gate monitoring system was just the beginning. Modules for monitoring other environmental conditions could easily be added to further optimise the system.

A technology scholarship report is required to provide convincing communication about the project. William wrote a report that clearly showed the depth of technical expertise required as well as the multiple decisions he made that took into account the nature of the context within which he developed his outcome.

See Materials that come with this resource to download: 

• Digital Technology Scholarship 2016: Orokonui Monitoring (.pdf)

Helping students identify an authentic, well-defined problem to solve is a good starting point. It is also important to ensure that students have access to the support they need to solve the problem. Willing, knowledgeable stakeholders who have time to have ongoing contact to help guide the development of a successful outcome are invaluable.

• Otago Daily Times: Pupil’s project aiding ecosanctuary 
• Leading Local Curriculum Guide series – This guide series has been developed to deliberately steer your curriculum, assessment review, and design decisions as you strengthen your local curriculum. 
• Our work with kiwi: New Zealand native land birds (Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai) – This provides valuable background information for the kiwi recovery programme and the featured project.