Last week's Sunday Star Times featured a story on a new ‘space age' toy for children called AntWorks following a complaint by a concerned member of the public. SAFE's education officer Nichola Kriek condemned the toy, refuting it was educational as touted by the manufacturer.
It is described as a ‘TVQuarium' and contains a blue luminous gel that the ants are supposed to live off. The manufacturer claims NASA developed the gel to see how ants burrow in micro-gravity. After some investigation into the AntWorks toy, SAFE's education officer had serious misgivings about the toy's educational value. "AntWorks encourages children to remove animals from their natural environment, control and dominate them. This goes completely against our nation's educational learning objectives. At the end of the ‘experiment' the ants die," says SAFE's education officer Nichola Kriek. "The New Zealand Science Curriculum asks children to ‘investigate local ecosystems and understand the interdependence of living organisms...and their relationship with their physical environment.' AntWorks claims to be ‘fun and educational' whereas it is in fact ‘anti-education'," says Nichola. Despite their size and seeming insignificance, ants lead highly complex social lives. The queens can live for up to 30 years and workers from one to three years. They communicate using pheromones and will emit an alarm pheromone when attacked or harmed. New Zealand has eleven species of ant, all of which are endemic. "I realise that to most people the plight of ants seems quite insignificant but many children are fascinated by these small creatures. My feeling is that if we are to teach children to respect and care for all living beings we need to set good examples from the very start," says Nichola. Click here to watch as ants stage a rescue as other ants become stuck in the gel of an AntWorks toy.
Click here to read the Sunday Star Times story. LATEST NEWS
SAFE 's education officer Nichola Kriek wrote to Ballantynes, a leading department store in Christchurch following a complaint they were stocking the AntWorks toy. On receipt of the letter the store has agreed to withdraw the product from their store. SAFE wishes to commend Ballantyes for taking the matter seriously and acting so promptly. Click here to view letter to Ballantynes department store and their reply.
24 November 2008
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