Plots prepared – tick! Oats planted – tick! The Year 7 science class has all systems go for the 2018 Hermitage Game of Drones challenge. Soil tests determined that lime was needed on the trial site and 6 plots were prepared including 2 x control plots, 1 x DAP (Di -ammononium phosphate, phosphorous, nitrogen), 1 x Super Potash 2:1 (phosphorous, potassium, sulphate, calcium) and 1 x Urea (nitrogen) and 1 x SUPER plot with all the fertilizer combined. Twenty four grams of oats were sown in each plot and were watered in… now we wait… Pumpkin comp update - You may see some 'strange' things appear. We sent home a dozen different seedling varieties of heirloom pumpkins. Be pleased as you probably a winner if you create your own category!!
The Year 7 science class have worked hard over the last 3 weeks preparing their plot for the Hermitage Plant ‘Game of Drones’ science competition. Plot prepared = tick! Now to determine the various treatments for the plot and the crop to plant… As part of their Cows Create Careers elective, students are introduced to various career options and individuals as they learn about agriculture, pasture to plate pathways and how to rear healthy calves. Tim and Beth Roberts hosted students on site at their contacting business where students learnt about the design technology involved in their tri axle grain tipping truck, an excavator and the header used to harvest cereal crops and oil seeds. At his Cooriemungle dairy farm Byron Smethurst outlined to students the importance of strict hygiene when rearing calves, best practice calf rearing facilities and the technology used in his dairy. Richard Riordan, the Liberal Member who holds the seat of Polworth in Southwest Victoria, recently spoke to our Year 7/8 “Who’s in charge” politics elective class. Richard provided students with an outline of his role, how he got into politics, the Australian political structure and outlined how a law is passed. He engaged students in vigorous debates on a number of topics. In particular students were keen to offer many suggestions on how to improve school attendance rates, the safety of overseas and local drivers, road conditions and the infrastructure at key local tourist spots. During a recent PD meeting, Timboon P-12 teaching staff were updated on past and future TAP activities to reinforce that the TAP can be a vehicle to help them teach concepts including- Implementing change (UDV role in advocacy with Adam Jenkins), Critical thinking skills (How will incorporating a robotic milking system impact in my business), The use of metalanguage (Creating effective ads with Karen Foster from O2media as part of our Camembert course), Cause and effect (Impacts on biodiversity with Debbie Dalziel), STEM (Technology in agriculture - Unit 4 Food Studies), Connecting classrooms (NAAE Conference), Real world science (Year 4 Paddock to plate excursions), Storytelling (A journey in the Tardis with volunteers from the Mt Leura management committee), Percentage and Ration (Calculating a cow's diet requirements in CCC), Problem solving (Engineers without Borders and The Power of Engineering workshop challenges), Coding (Working with our Mindstorm robots), Teamwork (Collecting honey from our school's bee hive), Innovation (How would you grow food on Mars challenge?), Careers awareness (How many people does it take to make a hamburger?) Contextualized learning (How things move?), Scientific reports (Year 2 - What forces are needed to push or pull?), Community connections (Camembert cheese judging night and Timboon Artisan Festival selling TAP lavender goods), and reminding staff that the TAP community partnerships are a platform for creating career awareness from a very young age. As part of their Year 9 Science studies into how organisms interact in their environment students investigate apiculture - beekeeping and honey production. Studies include learning about the behavior of bees, the transfer of energy, production of honey and diseases or threats that bees may face. Thanks to Emily and Tahnee for collecting honey from the school’s hive, the rest of the class for decapping, spinning and sieving the honey and Denis Horne for educating us again in the fine art of beekeeping. Timboon P-12 honey went home for tasting…yum! The Year 7 science class have begun the hard work to prepare a plot for the 2018 Hermitage Schools Plant Science competition, “Game of Drones”. Students will be establishing the trial plot to investigate different types of fertilizer on a crop and then will be conducting image analysis using ‘Digimizer’ with data obtained by a drone. Thanks to Andrew Allsop from Notman Seeds who has been working with Anne Frazer to discuss various types of potential crops, fertilizer rates and trial site details. Watch this space!! |
Archives
February 2024
|