> November
Trentham and Strathfieldsaye Primary Schools
At Trentham and Strathfieldsaye Primary Schools our Education Officer gave presentations on water quality, life cycles, water purification, water conservation and the properties of water.
Echuca, Strathfieldsaye, Marong and Creek Street Christian College
Our Education Officer presented our Taps & Toilets role playing game at four schools in our region this month. Taps and Toilets is an educational, hands-on engineering design game which
engages students in a 'real-life' problem solving exercise.
Strathfieldsaye and Kalliana School
The history of water supply and water use in Bendigo was presented by our Education Officer at Strathfieldsaye and Kalliana schools.
> October
National Water Week
National Water Week is held in October and the theme of this year’s was ‘Healthy Catchments, Healthy Communities’.
As usual our Education Officer had a very busy week.
Bendigo Special Development School
A range of water-themed activities around water use, the water cycle and the properties of water were presented to students at Bendigo Special Development School.
White Hills Botanic Gardens
There was a schools event at the White Hills Botanic Gardens coordinated by North Central Waterwatch where our Education Officer demonstrated the ‘Catchment in the Sandpit’ activity to Grades 3 and 4.
A temporary sandpit was created in the gardens to help illustrate the impact of human activity on water and the environment.
Lightning Reef Primary School
At the Lightning Reef Primary School in Bendigo our Education Officer gave a presentation and assisted with activities on the water cycle and water use for Preps and Grade 1.
‘Water for Life’ poster competition
Sixteen schools from our region participated in the annual ‘Water for Life’ poster competition. Regional Winner posters were displayed at the Bendigo Market Place during National Water Week.
> September
Budafest Schools Veggie Growing Competition
As part of our sponsorship arrangement with Budafest our Education Officer was one of three judges for the Schools Veggie Growing Competition.
The committee distributed seedlings earlier in the year to 14 schools in the Mt Alexander Shire. The gardens were judged and the winner was announced at the Schools Harvest dinner held at Winters Flat Primary School.
A local chef worked with students selected from each of the schools to produce a three-course meal using produce from each of the gardens.
The winning school was Guildford Primary School with all of the schools receiving encouragement awards.
> August
Gunbower Primary School
We were asked to present activities for Prep to grade six to fit the theme of ‘Consumer Affairs’.
Seniors (grades 3-6) played ‘Taps & Toilets', role playing engineers to gain an appreciation of costs and environmental considerations when building water systems. Students were also shown water treatment methods, relevant to the current Gunbower Water Treatment Plant upgrade.
The water cycle was explored with junior students (grades P-2) and a demonstration using buckets revealed how much water is used in the average home. Students considered how they could reduce water use.
Budafest Schools Veggie Growing Competition
As part of our sponsorship of Budafest, our Education Officer was on the judging panel for the Schools Veggie Garden Competition.
Fourteen primary schools in the Mount Alexander Shire participated and it was encouraging to see how significantly vegetable gardens feature in the school environment and curriculum, and the sustainable principles employed to manage them.
The gardens were judged over two days with results announced at the Schools Harvest Dinner on 2 September.
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> July
Early Childhood Education
Fourteen students and a lecturer from the Bendigo Region Institute of Tafe children’s services unit visited our Bridge Street office as part of their Early Childhood Education Certificate III course.
The group was shown demonstrations of water education activities we conduct with students from early childhood level through to primary school.
This experience addressed a subject requirement that water conservation and sustainable practice will be embedded in the workplace.
Primary Science
We presented sessions at a “Science in the Environment - in the classroom and in the field” professional development day for trainee teachers at the Latrobe University Ironbark Centre.
The event was coordinated by LandLearn, an agricultural education program conducted by the Department of Primary Industries. Around 70 students participated in the day.
The sessions were designed to create an awareness of water-related issues, our role in the community and the educational support we offer to teachers through or education program.
Trainee teachers often request our assistance and will now know where to find support.
> May
St Mary’s Primary School, Echuca
We were invited to conduct ‘Taps & Toilets’ at St Mary’s Primary School in Echuca in May.
St Mary’s students are participating in a whole school sustainability unit and grade 3-4 were chosen for the activity.
Students organised themselves into groups of three or four to role play engineers designing potable water, sewerage and recycled water systems.
The session concluded with a slideshow presentation about the impact of the January floods on North Central Victorian communities.
> April
Girton Grammar School, Grade 2 (40 students)
Forty Grade 2 students from Girton Grammar School had an excursion to the Coliban storages as part of their work on the water cycle and water treatment, and as a follow up to our Education Officer’s classroom visit last month.
At Lauriston Reservoir the Reservoir Controller explained his role as and the purpose of our three dams on the Coliban River.
Castlemaine State Festival Schools Program
As part of our sponsorship arrangement for the Castlemaine State Festival 2011 we provided a Wonders of Water (WOW) activity for students.
The activity took place from 4-7 April during the lunch breaks of the Schools Program at Victory Park.
The WOW activities involved a series of water-based experiments set up in recycled PET bottles and designed to stimulate thinking and an understanding of the properties of water.
> March
East Loddon P-12 College, Year 6-7 (50 students)
The school has a science specialist teacher who asked if we could in assist with interpretation of water treatment processes.
A water purification activity was related to the January floods and began by ‘contaminating’ rainwater with salt, gumnuts, sand and clay.
Students used sieves, filter paper, flasks and tongs to separate materials from the water.
Girton Grammar School, Grade 2 (40 students)
Prior to our classroom visit preliminary work had been done by students on the water cycle, rivers, dams and water treatment.
Students were asked to consider "where does Bendigo’s water come from?" and were shown a slide show on engineer Joseph Brady and the history of the Coliban System of Waterworks.
Students also watched an experiment showing how a syphon works and were shown 3D maps in preparation for an excursion to the Coliban headworks.
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