Despite the curve ball that COVID threw at us, we were still able to conclude this semester’s Cows Create Careers (CCC) activities with input from panelists and fun activities around careers in agriculture. Bronte Gorringe shared her career pathway as an agribusiness consultant from Mulchay & Co and described how this was combined with her passion for production agriculture, especially sheep. She reinforced that there are a variety of roles right across agriculture, that knowledge is transferable, the future in ag is bright and it needs good people. English backpacker and teacher, Beth Mclauchlan described dairy as ‘Dairy, my ticket to adventure’ whilst working her way around Australia on a Working Holiday visa. Beth outlined that her work on dairy farms in SW Victoria introduced her to new communities, taught her skills and improved her confidence, financed her travels and will give her great practical examples and ideas to use in her teaching. Inspired by the Lego agriculture career series, students were then challenged to design an advertisement in a field of work they were interested in such as biology/animals, engineering, finance, machinery, research, animal production, and hospitality. The lesson concluded with a dairy taste test where students had to describe the smell, appearance, taste, mouth feel and estimate the percentage of fat in unlabeled cheese, cream, milk, custard and yoghurt. Thank you to all of our CCC champions this semester! Our ‘Feathers, Fur or Leaves’ Year 3/4 classes have been learning how to classify things according to their observable features. To reinforce their learning, students had to research an animal from around the world and produce a poster or pamphlet about their animal before reporting back to the class for some peer learning sessions. As researchers, students needed to read and include topic words with dot point facts before adding details based on their notes. Sub headings included description, habitat, diet, life cycle, enemies / predators, interesting facts, a world location map and a scientifically labelled drawing. What great researchers! Our CCC calves weren’t on holidays whilst on site at Timboon P-12 School, they were working hard gaining weight, growing and enabling students to learn to compile scientific reports! One component of the semester long Cows Create Careers Year 7/8 science elective was for students to produce a report based on the calves’ health and weight gain. The scientific method comprised an overview, method, results, discussion/analysis, evaluation and conclusion. Check out the work of Kyla who produced this brilliant report. To conclude our Yr 7/8 CCC - Cows Create Careers unit for this semester, and to demonstrate the depth and breath of careers that directly or indirectly revolve around agriculture in our region, students undertook a walking tour of Timboon. At Total Dairy Service students were hosted by owner, Shirley Walker, who described their business model that services and instals dairy plant and feed systems. Students were introduced to Luke Walker and Mikayla Hein, who own and operate their own businesses, Engineer-It and Effluent Solutions Australia. As mechanical engineers their businesses involve working on repairs, farm machinery design, and construction, manufacturing and developing effluent management systems, solid trap systems and systems for utilising effluent efficiently. At Nutrien Ag Solutions, Ben Green described his career path and the variety of careers including agronomy, horticulture, livestock, merchandise, property and agribusiness covered under the Nutrien banner. To conclude our tour, students visited Timboon Fine Ice Cream where students learnt about the career paths of Caroline Simmons and Tim Marwood whose business targets the tourism and hospitality industries. Students heard about the creation of the 12 Apostles Artisan Trail and its role in promoting artisans in our region and gratefully sampled cones of dairy delights. Thank you Shirley, Luke, Mikayla, Ben and Caroline for sharing your journey with us and for helping make students more aware of the myriad of careers available across agriculture in our region. In the Year 3/4 science unit ‘Feathers, Fur or Leaves’, our Year 3/4 scientists learn that living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things. Students had to predict what they would find in leaf litter and then record and classify the minibeasts that they encountered. Our classes found millipedes, ants, worms, termites, spiders, slugs and eggs. Looks like they had fun, check out their reports below - |
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March 2024
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