Australian Animals Habitat Incursion F-2: Findon Primary School

The La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary offers exciting incursions to schools in Melbourne catering to specific curriculum content and outcomes. During the partnership between the Sanctuary and Findon Primary School, the early years program expressed their interest in an incursion based on Australian animals and their habitat.


The main learning outcome of this inquiry based, hands on and discovery incursion was for students to build an understanding of what a habitat is and what Australian animals need to survive and thrive in their habitat. This incursion also includes an exploration of some the unique physicality's of Australia's amazing animals and how people can help conserve their habitats.


Resources for this incursion includes live footage of Australian animals using nest boxes, discovery boxes about Australian animals, habitat slideshows on the types of habitats found in Australia, post trip habitat assessment exercise plus more!


The main curriculum links covered during the can be found below

Foundation Living things have basic needs, including food and water (ACSSU002) Share observations and ideas (ACSIS012) Respond to questions about familiar objects and events (ACSIS014)

Year 1 Living things live in different places where their needs are met (ACSSU211) Living things have a variety of external features (ACSSU017) People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE022) Participate in different types of guided investigations to explore and answer questions, such as manipulating materials, testing ideas, and accessing information sources (ACSIS025)

Year 2 Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (ACSSU030) Through discussion, compare observations with predictions (ACSIS214) People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE035)

Enjoy the detailed Incursion description here

Planting Complete!

As this term at Findon Primary school, a major focus has been planting and caring for developing gardens around the school.

On Thursday the 27th of November, the Planet Savers took advantage of the warmer weather to plant the remaining plants in the Butterfly Garden.

 

 

The students decided on their roles before planting without any instruction. One role they selected was to water the new and existing plants. The students noticed that this role had too many people and decided upon themselves to rotate through the different roles so it was fair. To begin with these roles included watering, taking out the plants from their pots and finding established holes. Half way through the planting session two year 2 students asked to join in. A year 4 Planet Saver was enthusiastic to get them started and showed them the process as well as explaining why they needed to wear gloves. He took it upon himself to be their buddy for the session, helping them taking out plants and making sure the holes for planting were deep enough. It was particularly special to see the older members of the Planet Savers take the initiative to lead younger students of the school.

 

 

All students expressed their sense of achievement in completing the planting in two areas of the school. All students commented on how important they felt it was to keep these gardens free of rubbish. The session ended in 'High Fives' for everyone involved in the planting. One student stated that since he was in year 4, he would be able to watch the gardens grow and continue to take care of them.

 

 

 

The Butterfly Garden

The Planet Savers at Findon Primary School have been focused on planting and maintaining some of the schools developing gardens.

In 2013 the Findon "Butterfly Garden" was designed and implemented by the Sustainability leaders. Since that time the garden has become dry and weeds have spread. To attract more insects and of course, butterflies the Planet Savers took the opportunity to weed and clean up this garden for the upcoming warmer months. Two students in particular have a growing concern for rubbish pollution in the developing gardens. The concern was raised at last Friday's school assembly to address fellow students, teachers and the wider school community.

During the clean up, large weeds were given as a tasty treat to the schools chickens. The left over weeds were put on to the compost. The Planet Savers have developed a conscious effort to think about how and where garden waste is distributed over the past few weeks of this project. Any rubbish that was found in the butterfly garden was sorted in to materials that could be recycled or not.

Once the garden had been cleared of weeds and rubbish pollution the team planted around the border of the garden. Next, they created holes for the new plants going in to the garden next Thursday. While the team of Planet Savers worked on the tidy-up, the remaining students watered the Bush Food Garden plants and returned to water the new plants in the Butterfly Garden.


Below are some images of the garden cleared and ready for more plants next week.

Watering Our Garden

Following Mondays planting, the Planet Savers took the opportunity to look at the new plants and provide some much needed TLC with the upcoming warmer weather!
The Planet Savers were thrilled to see all the new plants, even remincing on their first experiences with planting at Findon. One year five student remembered beginning the bush food garden in year 3 and was impressed to see how much it had developed.

Each student had a watering can or a bucket between two. As a team, we discussed how much water these new plants needed. A third of a bucket was a reasonable amount of water for each plant. The Planet Savers also discussed the impact of the recent hot days on the growth of the plants.

This session provided a great opportunity for reflection. Students were able to see the positive impacts of caring for plants over an extended period of time. The main concerns the Planet Savers raised for caring for these Indienous plants were eliminating any rubbish from the area and ensuring all new and existing plants were watered.

Planting Afternoon!

Three years ago Findon Primary School and La Trobe University started a Bush Food Garden  together at the primary school. Planted in the garden were indigenous plants. Many early years students use this space as a place to play and the vegetation has grown well.

On Monday the 3rd of November a group of students volunteered to tidy up and plant new plants in this garden. With the help of a Planet Saver leader the team of students planted over 50 plants. All weeds were removed, holes dug, plants watered and tree guard put up for the plants in danger of being stepped on. With leftover time, the team also spread new mulch over this area.

As most of the team were not a part of the Planet Savers group, a new interest was sparked and many children are now excited to help in upcoming planting projects around the school. As these plants are new, all team members expressed interest in checking on the garden throughout the term so the garden can have the best chance to flourish.

 As well as showing interest and care in planting and looking after the flora of the school, many children discussed making their own garden at home after learning how to plant. It was great to see the boys and girls working collaboratively and helping each other to use new tools. During the activity many students expressed how happy they were that they decided to attend school that day as many students were away due to Melbourne Cup weekend.

The children gained a valuable learning experience by enquiring about types of plants that like shade and those that like sun. They also used informal measurements of water to 'kick start' the growth of the newly planted. Many were surprised at how much water was required and were concerned it may be too much! Extending the sustainable program to children outside of the Planet Savers team has promoted caring for flora to the wider school.

Teacher Resources


La Trobe Wildlife Educational Experiences would like to provide teachers with resources to take in to their classroom.

In this post you will find a Water Invertebrates ID Sheet

 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5_XBzqEjEV-U3diRGNla1ZmWDg/edit?usp=docs_home

Planet Savers 16th of October

 

With Term 4 underway the Findon Planet Savers have been brainstorming their goals and aims for achieving a sustainable school.
After a team of savers performed the energy saving light audit, the whole group decided to work on badges for the compost monitors in each classroom.

The team discussed a plan for their documentary and every member nominated themselves for a role.
The overall plot of the documentary is a superhero story, with a villian wasting energy, creating waste and being irresponsible in terms of sustainability. Below is a list of characters and roles in order to create the film:

1. Miss Planet Saver- the hero of the film
2. Enviro Dog- Miss Saver's trustworthy side-kick
3. Dr. Bolt- the villian
4. Rubbish Guy- Dr. Bolt's side-kick
5. Camera Man
6. x2 Script Writers
7. Location Set Up Team Member
8. x2 Flim editors and also filming 'extras'.

In total, there are 10 roles and it was decided that all students had the opportunity to be involved in the film if desired.

Filming will begin next week.

Planet Savers Light Audit

With the help of the school community, The Findon Planet Savers constructed a light audit. From the recent feedback in the teachers PD session there was a concern for existing lights to be gradually changed to energy saving lights. On Thursday, members of the FPS constructed a tally for three light types. "We have sooo many lights" Matthew (Gd. 5). Matthew highlighted that the lights were always on in the office area. The first two types of light were located in the office area and the third throughout the whole school. Their aim is to replace all lights in these areas so all needed to be counted. Below is a table of the number of lights to be replaced, as conducted by the FPS. Plans are underway to replace these lights now that the audit has been done. All students are excited to contribute to the schools decision making in saving energy.

Lights to be replaced are: Type 1-19, Type 2-24 and Type 3-19

Compost Campaign

After the brainstorm, the Findon Planet Savers decided that each classroom including the staff room needed a compost bin. The two major problem solving issues the FPS recognised is that the compost bins were not successful in previous trials because the bins had no lid. The second issue was that the bucket sizes needed to be a suitable, medium size for the classroom.


Sourcing the buckets proved to be easier than anticipated and came from a local pasta sauce factory, equipped with lids!




On Thursday, the FPS held a meeting to discuss the labels for the compost buckets and how to communicate the new program to the school. One student had the idea of constructing badges to create "Compost Monitors" for each classroom. With the badge making machine available the students began creating badges and decided the leaders would introduce the program at the Friday assembly.




The labels for the compost buckets were simple so that it was easy to read for all year levels. Signs were then created to show what could and could not go in the compost buckets.

Planet Saver Brainstorms!

The Findon Planets Savers (FPS) have been working towards becoming student-centered and weekly programs run, based on their ideas in collaboration with the teachers feedback from the PD. On Thursday the 21st of August the FPS came together to brainstorm their ideas for future projects continuing in to term 4.

Below are the outcomes of the student collaboration session done today...

All students passionately discussed creating a Documentary of their journey in becoming a sustainable school. You can see their focus will be on Waste, Water, Biodiversity and Energy. It was discussed that each member of FPS is to be involved, taking on different roles. These roles included an editor, script writer(s), camera operations and interviewers.

Here you can see the students are concerned about a Compost and Waste campaign to a whole school approach. As part of preparing for a waste audit they decided signs to save water and paper were needed throughout the school to prompt users. Badges were thought of to give to monitors in the classrooms, which would be made by the FPS.

 For their Energy Campaign, the theme of constructing signs was deemed important to be consistent with the waste campaign. The idea of presentations and videos at assembly was discussed that included themes such as solar power, having competitions on energy saving and showing people how much energy they actually use in daily tasks.


















Further and NEW developments for Term 4

Below, the students discussed the existing Butterfly Garden. They were enthusiastic about having monitors watering the plants every week using recycled water and planning how, when and who will keep developing this wonderful garden. Also below is the year 2/3 Bushfood Garden that needs to be maintained and a new garden outside the 2/3 classrooms that will be a new development. Their ideas consisted of a design, plant selection, weed management and school permissions. 

Professional Development with Findon Primary School

The La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary provides professional development workshops to teachers through their education department. Findon Primary School staff required further opportunity to explore and understand their School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP).

During this session teachers were able to express their concerns and ideas to make Findon a more sustainable school through collaboration of their ideas. This included organizing ideas from most important to least by opinion and also discussing where funding should be spent and why.

The central idea of the PD was to unify ideas across all year levels and establish solutions to work towards using the resources available.

In this post are the collaborations by the teachers and a Prezi document with the results of their ideas and understandings!

Access the  here Prezi Document

Incursion: Water Is An Essential Resource

La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary recognises that teaching students that Water Is An Essential Resource will develop their understanding of water conservation and ways of use.


This month, Milgate Primary School expressed an interest in a unique incursion teaching about water conservation, usage and what it means for water to be a finite resource. This detailed incursion is hands on and based on inquiry learning and group participation.



This incursion gives students the opportunity to explore the complex concept of water as a finite resource. Students will develop an understanding that world’s water is limited by use that leads to conclusions about water conservation. Students learn to speak and think of water as an essential resource for all life. Exploration takes place through discussion, visual images, group work and physical representation. The whole-part-whole approach to this incursion gives the opportunity for students to observe activities and ask inquiry based questions about the content. It also allows for the development of these ideas and practise of these ideas. This incursion is designed to scaffold in to higher order thinking both independently and in groups. 

A unique feature of this incursion is exploring macro invertebrates that live in healthy waterways and why they are essential to determining water health.

Water Is An Essential Resource is aimed at year 3 and 4 students. Resources include looking at macro invertebrates through microscopes, to scale exploration of where water can be found and what is available for human consumption, group activities on water usage plus a post trip class water pledge assessment exercise.

 Curriculum Links that Water Is An Essential Resource covers include

AusVELS Focus: Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment to make and record observations, using formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS055) Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050) Measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of length, mass and capacity (ACMMG061) ACARA Curriculum Links Science knowledge helps people to understand the effect of their actions (ACSHE051) Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things (ACSSU044) Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and the environment to survive (ACSSU073) Natural and processed materials have a range of physical properties; These properties can influence their use (ACSSU074) Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment to make and record observations, using formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS066)

Photosynthesis

On Thursday I worked with the grade 2 and 3 students (4 classes) at Findon PS to introduce them to the concept of Photosynthesis.

We started out addressing the needs (input) of a plant: sunlight, nutrients, carbon dioxide, water etc.We then discussed what a plant produces (output): flowers, leaves, fruit, oxygen etc. The students demnstrated a good understanding of this, although they did get confused between the role of gases (carbon dioxide and oxygen). The students worked in teams to produce a diagram of these processes.

One student dressed up as the sun and the other students dressed up as trees. They acted out the lifecycle of a plant: waiting as a seed until the sun came along and gave them energy (tapped them on the shoulder). The trees grew slowly, putting out branches and leaves until they were fully grown, blowing in the breeze.

The classes then watched the Photosynthesis Song (YouTube video) and acted this out as trees.

The students really enjoyed the lesson, especially dressing up. One student commented "I think that was the best lesson this year... I love it when Andrew does fun things with us - and we learnt so much about Photosythesis".

School Energy Audit Report

In June, the Findon Biodiversity Group conducted an all-school Energy Audit. A report was compiled by Planet Savers Australia and has been presented by the Biodiversity Group. The report found that the school emissions per student were slightly higher than the recommended levels for Primary Schools (based on State benchmarks). Major energy uses were heating / cooling, lighting during off-peak times and IT / computer needs.

The recommendations were divided into four key areas of energy consumption:

1. Lighting

• Switch off when not being used
• Label switches with signage encouraging students and staff to switch off when not is use
• Upgrade fluorescent lighting
• Replace incandescent, halogen and T8 fittings with LED 

2. Air-conditioning (heating/cooling)

• An agreed temperature set range from all staff (Recommended cooling temp 24-26 / heating 18-20 degrees)
• Install timed-control on electric Heaters and split systems
• Close evaporative vents during winter
• Solar air-conditioning
• Heat reflective paint for roof areas
• Future decisions with heating and cooling systems
• Building fabric, solar gain and heat loss

3. Appliances and hot water

• Timers for water boilers
• Timers for hot water services and water coolers
• Switch off refrigerators over school breaks
• Upgrade refrigerators to more efficient types

4. Information Technology

• Enable computer standby and hibernation
• Shut down at the wall or switchboard during school breaks holidays
• Use photocopier power save mode
• Switch off printers and copiers at the wall
• Switch off interactive whiteboards

Useful links:

www.planetsavers.com.au 
www.ceres.org.au 
www.coolaustralia.org 
www.energystar.gov.au 
www.epeat.net 
www.energyrating.gov.au 
www.greenpower.com.au