Finally, our Year 9/10 Aghort class were able to plant the seasonal vegetables in our new school kitchen garden that they had determined would be best for our Food tech classes. In the process they have had to come up with a proposal of what they wanted to grow in their veggie patch, why and what specific growing conditions their vegetable or herb required. They had to decide between seeds, seedlings or established plants and ensure that the soil in their individual garden was suitable or if it needed compost or manure. A risk assessment of pests was conducted and students had to decide how they would avert insect or pest damage. Prior to planting the students had to provide a cost analysis including a detailed / costed list of the requirements for their gardens. Ably assisted by garden guru, Julie Broomhall, the students have planted radish, parsley, basil spinach, lettuce, cauliflowers, beetroot, rainbow and standard carrots. To compliment the geology being taught in the Year 8 Science classrooms, we invited ex Timboon P-12 student and local geotechnical engineer, Jeremy Doolan, into the classroom to provide his expertise to help us better understand rocks, minerals, geology and the range of careers in this field. He explained that Australia contains all known rock types and the age of some rocks spans over 3.8 billion years. Since the gold rush in the 1850s, Australian mining has become much more industrialized and automated including the use of AI and it is one of the most important producers of raw mineral product in the world. After obtaining a Bachelor Degree in Geological Engineering, Jeremy worked in open pit and underground mines in Mount Isa in Queensland before becoming a Geotechnical Engineer at the Ballarat Gold Mine and later the Cadia Mine near Orange where he worked on Technology and Innovation. Returning to Port Campbell in 2017, he worked in a Fly-in, Fly-out (FIFO) capacity as a Geotechnical Superintendent and Underground Mine Manager. Currently he is working for a consulting/ contracting firm, Operational Geotechs, which allows him to work from home with adhoc mine site visits when necessary. Jeremy was able to help students understand the difference between open pit and underground mines and the various types of raw materials, equipment, work practices, technology and career options available in today's mining industry in Australia Our Year 10 Science students are investigating endangered species and biosecurity so we reached out to former Timboon P-12 School student, Abbey Ralph, who is now a Graduate Ranger at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. After graduating from Timboon, Abbey took a gap year where she originally worked in retail to help save money for a solo back packing trip around Europe. Upon her return, Abbey enrolled in a Bachelor of Environmental Science at Deakin University where she discovered a new passion and drive for land based environmental science. During her course Abbey volunteered at wildlife sanctuaries and parks before determining that she wanted to one day return to work in Tasmania. COVID restrictions made interships difficult so Abbey applied for an Honours year and, as a non-academic person, she knew she was up for a challenge, but couldn’t wait to start a fourth year of study in an area that really interested her. Abbey’s research year took her to the Grampians National Park where she studied the abundance and distribution of the Long-Nosed Potoroo and the Southern Brown Bandicoot. This research was critical as bandicoots have not been seen in the landscape since 2013 and potoroos not since 2010. Camera traps and vegetation surveys helped establish where they were sited in the Grampians and also determined the number and type of predators in their environment. Abbey later worked with Parks Victoria and was able to apply the skills about environmental management into practise in real world situations. After project management in Northern Victoria and a search for a new job and an adventure, Abbey applied for the role as Gradate Ranger of Cradle Mountain, a dream location for a job! Her role is made up of a variety of roles including park maintenance, talking to visitors, reviewing permits and walking the walking tracks. As Abbey’s career progresses, she will learn all about project planning, firefighting, helicopter operations, supporting search and rescues and volunteer programs. She thoroughly enjoys working in the Cradle landscape and this role in Tasmania is a real adventure! What an office... As part of the TAP and continuing the focus on farm safety introduced during the Year 5/6 TAP into Farm Safety unit, our Year 9/10 AgHort students were fortunate to be part of the National Centre for Farmer Health’s Gear Up program at Timboon P-12. As a significant portion of on-farm deaths and injuries in Australia occur among young people working on the farm, we wanted to provide our Year 9/10 AgHort students with an opportunity to learn about farm safety in a practical, fun manner. Facilitators, Sally Cunningham, Tam Phillips and Cecilia Fitzgerald, introduced the program that builds students’ knowledge of farm hazards and understanding of the importance of safe practices to positively influence farm safety behaviours. Through a range of creative, interactive activities students explored agricultural exposures and hazards, working with machinery and livestock, prevention strategies, respiratory health, eye and ear safety, zoonotic diseases, agri chemicals, heat related stress, PPE and wellbeing. We are grateful to Tim Nowel and Nutrien Timboon who supported the delivery of this potentially life saving project for these young adults. We are excited about Timboon P-12 School joining the River Detectives project in 2023 as it is a creative education initiative of Catchment Management Authorities (CMA) designed to inspire teachers and students to understand, appreciate and care for their local waterway through engaging, P-12 cross-curricular, citizen-science activities. Regional teachers participated in a PD delivered by River Detective facilitators, CMA’s Citizen Science officers Kristen Lees and Deirdre Murphy. The PD provided an overview of the program and flexible delivery options, exploring our water quality kit and learning how to complete the five tests, extension ideas and a brief tour of River Detectives website. Starting with our Year 10 Geography class and their investigation of the Curdies estuary, we plan to be delving into our local waterways to learn more about local rivers and creeks with various year levels in 2023. During their Science investigations this term, the Year 1/2 students are learning about ‘Changes all around us’ and have established that changes can be seen everywhere, can happen over a period of time including minutes, months and years, they can occur in cycles and that some changes can be made by humans. To better understand changes in the world around us, the students listed the Natural, Managed and Constructed features they were aware of before undertaking an investigation using a QR code hunt. Working in teams the students scanned QR codes and had to determine what the resulting image was and categorize the feature as natural, managed or constructed. What a great way to learn about the world around us! Crayfest is our regional celebration of our ocean environment, sustainability and the wonderful volunteers amngst us! All primary students have been making jellyfish, octopus and koinobori (Japanese carp windsocks) to use in the Crayfest Parade on 26th March. We have been having so much fun spraying inks, attaching beautiful fabrics and ribbons for tails and then we have to iron and then hand sew the two sides of their koinobori together. Timboon P-12 students and staff will also provide a live mural for juniors to paint, ocean themed face painting and buntings will celebrate our TAP Community of Educators! See you there!! Now our Year 9/10 AgHort students have a basic understanding of the importance of healthy soils to promote the best growth conditions in plants, we undertook a field trip to Timboon Wholesale Nursery so they can observe how this works in actual horticultural / agricultural businesses. Owner, Danny Li, described the history of the business that started in 1974 as Bullen’s Nursery, a small retail nursery in Timboon before Trevor and Cherolyn Bullen established it as a specialist wholesale nursery producing quality potted cyclamen, hydrangeas and lisianthus that are sold to retail nurseries and florists in Victoria, NSW and South Australia. Danny, who graduated with a degree in Computer Science, previously worked as web designer and was a sales consultant in real estate before he saw the nursery for sale in 2021 and realised his passion to work with plants. Danny stressed the importance of good quality soil for the potting mix and the described the business’ use of technology including sensors to monitor and maintain optimum conditions in the nursery. Students toured the potted shed, control room, greenhouse, and propagation sheds to see how they were all designed with optimum plant growth in mind. They learnt that although Timboon was a great location to crop these flower crops, the weather, humidity, light, pests, temperature, moisture and soil chemistry had to all be carefully curated and controlled in the automated greenhouses to ensure that the best quality plants were produced for retailers to sell to consumers. Following the release of the ‘TAP into Farm Safety’ podcast for the the ‘VFF ‘Making Our Farms Safer’ project we were asked to present a workshop at the Cream of the Crop conference in Koroit on farm safety. John Darcy, the VFF Senior Farm Safety Advisor, introduced the Making Our Farm Families Safer project that is aimed at parents and grandparents with tools to keep their families safe. Attendees were made aware that farms are most dangerous / deadly worksites in Australia with a disproportionate number of workplace injuries or fatalities. Wearing three hats, as a dairy farmer, Ambulance Victoria volunteer and TAP Coordinator, Andrea Vallance was able to help guide conversations around farm safety and explained that it is a shared community responsibility. A suite of resources including the VFF ‘Making Our Farms Safer’ project, the Year 5/6 TAP into Farm Safety unit, the National Centre for Farmer Health’s Year 9/10 Gear Up workshops, Primezone resources and George the Farmer’s Farm Safety projects were introduced to inspire conversations. We tapped into the experience and expertise of conference attendees to create key safety messaging for five cohorts; Under 25’s, Young families, Families with teens, Farm teams, Grandparents as part of the required multi- faceted, cross generational response to help keep our farm families safe. |
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April 2024
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