Our Year 7 Science students were introduced to the Cows Create Careers (CCC) unit by WestVic Dairy’s Workforce Attraction Lead, Samantha Andrews who described her career pathway and potential opportunities and careers in the dairy industry. Originally working in mining and corrections, Sam changed careers when she married and quickly learnt that dairy farmers take advantage of innovative and sustainable measures to ensure the health and sustainability of their animals, farms, teams and businesses with tools including cow collars, robotic dairies, genomics, sexed semen and recycling water to grow crops. She described the many opportunities both inside and beyond the farmgate as a lifetime career or as an interim job that taught numerous teambuilding skills with lots of potential for careers right across our industry. Sam introduced us to Ella and Nellie, two girls who who enjoy the flexibility that dairy offers as they work with her farm team after school and on holidays around their family, cricket and netball commitments. They help rear calves, drive tractors, milk and assist vets while gaining experience for early entry to study Agriculture at university and becoming a physiotherapist respectively. Taylah, from a non farming background, was accepted into AgScience at uni but took an AgFutures gap year and is thriving in the farm environment; even travelling to New Zealand on a study tour. Students learnt that that agriculture is central to our region with dairy being the biggest enterprise in South West Victoria and approximately 5 job opportunities available for every graduate from university agricultural courses. They were surprised at the range of dairy related jobs beyond the farm gate and that dairy food processing employs 6,000 people locally. The classes were challenged to nominate as many careers in dairy as possible with 7A producing the longest list! Sam left the students with a much better understanding of the range of flexible careers in agriculture across our region. Thanks Sam! It’s amazing what you find amongst all the TAP goodies! Aimee Snowden, the creator of the Lego Farmer and Little Brick Pastoral, gifted us some 2024 calendars that depict the Lego Farmer’s travels as part of her 2023 Nuffield Scholarship research. Aimee’s investigation explores agriculture education and engagement models around the world that drive immersive experiences for the next generation with a particular focus on primary school students and agritourism events, shows and fairs. Can’t wait to see the results, thanks Aimee! It’s been a measured, meandering journey, but today we proudly launched our 2023 Year 9 Humanities project “Curdies’ Tales: Stories of the river by its people”. Our 2023 Year 9 students, (current Year 10 cohort), hosted a morning tea and welcomed the people who contributed to our oral history collection of narratives that recounted peoples’ memories of the Curdies River Catchment area. Our guests learnt of the background to the project and the field trip to to the Curdies estuary at Peterborough to help our students get a sense of time and place as they prepared to record and publish the oral histories of people who lived, worked and relaxed in the Curdies River catchment area. The 15 community members our students interviewed were acknowledged as were the five people who provided written pieces for our publication. The contribution of Barb Mullen and Fiona Mackenzie as editors was recognized as were Kerry Vickers and Peter Younis from the Heytesbury and District Historical Society who provided images and maps for the text. Our guests were presented with an appreciation certificate and a copy of our booklet by Humanities teacher, Carolyne Wakefield, and they enjoyed sharing stories with the students and their peers. We are considering a second print run of our booklet, so if you would like a copy of “Curdies’ Tales: Stories of the river by its people”, please contact the School. Thank you to everyone who contributed in anyway to this legacy building TAP project. After investigating Melittology: the life cycles of bees, ecological relationships, bee conservation, apiculture (beekeeping) and human or climatical impacts on their habitat, it was time for our Year 9 Science students to taste various types of honey. Aimed with a ‘Honey connoisseur aroma and tasting wheel’, the students had to describe the colour, aroma, flavour, texture and after flavour. Reactions varied but the stand out favourites were our own Timboon School honey and Penders Yellow Gum Timboon Honey. Tastes ranged from “smooth and buttery”, “different with a natural taste”, “very sugary” and “blackberry’ flavour”. The antibacterial claims of some honey makers and the effectiveness of their honey consumed instead of being used topically were discussed. What a sweet lesson! The TAP noticeboard in the Timboon P-12 Staffroom is updated quarterly as a reminder to our staff of the amazing opportunities and experiences available to our students right outside our school gate. What can you TAPify…. it’s a real concept!!? As part of our recap of TAP 2023, we forwarded an update to Primary Industries Education Foundation of Australia (PIEFA) and they recently shared this post with educators across Australia. There was even a call to hold the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Conference in Timboon! Timboon Agriculture Project (TAP) 2023 recap! Over 170 members from the community and industry collaborated to develop and deliver the TAP curriculum, enriching the educational experience for students at Timboon P-12 School. Some of the highlights of 2023 included learning about paddock-to-plate pathways, exploring diverse career opportunities within the agriculture industry, explorations of geology, microbial science, AgTech innovations, waterway health, and even the psychology behind effective marketing strategies. Read more about it on their blog https://buff.ly/4cAJ6Sh #PIEFA #TimboonAgProject #AgInSchools #AgStudents #AgricultureStudents #AgEducation #AgricultureCareers |
Archives
April 2024
|