Our Year 5/6 Geography students are continuing to explore interconnections within places and between places, and the effects of these interconnections so we are researching connections between Australia and countries in the Asia region around trade and tourism. We invited Mark Cuthell from the Port Campbell Visitor Centre into our classroom to explore what we know about our international neighbours and what we both want and need in terms of migration, trade, aid, security, cultural exchange and visiting friends and relatives. Students considered how well we know ourselves with 30% of the Australian population born overseas and around 50% percent of people have a parent who was born overseas. He described how locals and various international tourists are enticed to visit our region and explained the planning that went into advertising campaigns to consider the individual needs and wants of visitors from each country/region to make them feel welcome, important, respected and treated fairly, creating wonderful memories. As a target audience, Mark challenged our students to create an ad campaign using persuasive text and images to invite and inspire the 180,000 international students living in Melbourne to bring their visiting families and friends to explore the new Timboon - Port Campbell - Cobden - Camperdown Rail Trail. The students’ script ideas and themes could be used to then potentially inspire ad campaigns or included as a blog link on local tourism webpages with some of our students creating hastags already! What an opportunity to encourage people to visit the SouthWest and perhaps leave as an ambassador for our region.
#howcoolisthis! Our Year 5/6 Geography students are continuing to explore interconnections within places and between places, and the effects of these interconnections so we are researching connections between Australia and countries in the Asia region around trade and tourism. We invited Mark Cuthell from the Port Campbell Visitor Centre into our classroom to explore what we know about our international neighbours and what we both want and need in terms of migration, trade, aid, security, cultural exchange and visiting friends and relatives. Students considered how well we know ourselves with 30% of the Australian population born overseas and around 50% percent of people have a parent who was born overseas. He described how locals and various international tourists are enticed to visit our region and explained the planning that went into advertising campaigns to consider the individual needs and wants of visitors from each country/region to make them feel welcome, important, respected and treated fairly, creating wonderful memories. As a target audience, Mark challenged our students to create an ad campaign using persuasive text and images to invite and inspire the 180,000 international students living in Melbourne to bring their visiting families and friends to explore the new Timboon - Port Campbell - Cobden - Camperdown Rail Trail. The students’ script ideas and themes could be used to then potentially inspire ad campaigns or included as a blog link on local tourism webpages with some of our students creating hastags already! What an opportunity to encourage people to visit the SouthWest and perhaps leave as an ambassador for our region. As Timboon locals would be aware, Milk and Honey is a home decor store that celebrates the natural richness and abundance of Timboon and specializes in a carefully curated collection of boutique clothing, footwear, homewares and gifts chosen by Simone Togni and her team. We chose this as a backdrop to teach our Year 7A Economics class about the vagaries of local business economics, especially supply and demand catering to a diverse range of clients. During our field trip Simone described the history of her business that started 14 years ago in Timboon and the importance of having a variety of quality stock that appealed to her customer base of both locals and tourists. Students learnt that goods are purchased 12 months in advance often at a gift fairs in August with a range of intended purchasers in Simone’s mind as she appraises potential stock. Purchasing demand was considered alongside the volume of stock available on the shelves with December/January and Easter being the busiest times of the year. Simone encouraged our budding entrepreneurs to talk to others about their ideas and plans as often they can help you join the dots. Thanks Simone It’s been quite a wait for formal approvals to be granted but our 2 x FarmBots have cleared Customs and have arrived at Timboon after a speedy trip all the way from California! The FarmBot robotic open hardware system will enable students to work in 2 gardens growing food with capacity to weed, water, soil test with students refining their coding skills to generate tasks. Timboon P-12 School successfully applied to the Secondary Schools Agriculture Fund (SSAF) to integrate even more STEM learning objectives into its curriculum to inspire the next generation of farmers and today’s fledgling engineers. The SSAF forms part of the Labor Government’s $50 million investment in the Agricultural College Modernisation Program – helping more students pursue careers in agriculture and meet the growing demands of the growing farm, food and fibre sector. We can’t wait to see what the students working with the FarmBots can produce! A highlight of our Year 8 Science calendar is the production of Camembert cheese and includes studying the science of cheesemaking involving chemistry, food science, scientific processes, and researching aspects of the Australian dairy industry while students wait for their Camembert cheeses to mature. A regular contributor and local cheese making aficionado is artisan cheese maker Julian Benson from Apostle Whey Cheese. Julian described how Apostle Whey was created, the planning and training prior to the new business commencing, the types of cheese produced and the production systems used with many similarities in the production methods used for the students’ own Camembert. He described the pathway of his farm’s milk from the dairy through pasteurization and it is then made into cheese or bottled for milk or churned for gelati. Julian described the thought processes involved in marketing their products with a none too subtle connection to our region to remind tourists of their adventures. He encouraged students to find what they were passionate about, to enjoy what they do in their lives as this will drive them to strive in their chosen field and to back themselves!Thanks Julian! This term our Year 5/6 students are investigating the Geographical links between local businesses contributing to global economics as part of an international community. We invited local sheep farmer, Leigh McKenzie, into our classroom to describe the pathway of Australian fleece from farms across Australia that are exported overseas where they are processed into manufactured goods and imported back into Australia. Leigh described the history of sheep and wool production in this area and outlined the seasonal activities of his farm at Newfield with sheep primarily bred to firstly produce meat with 5,200 lambs turned off and 100 bales of wool produced last year. Learning about different types and breeds of sheep, the students were interested in shearing and the journey of wool bales from farms, through wool broker warehouses where they are tested and then sold. Geographical and economic concerns were discussed including the implications of environmental concerns and cost of production. Over 92% of Australian wool is exported greasy, or not processed, with China importing 85%, India 4% and Italy 3%. We learnt that Australia produces 325 million tonnes of wool each year, with wool exports worth $3.5 billion to the Australian economy. Our Year 11 VCE Psychology students have been investigating how people are influenced and how marketing is constructed to persuade people to act in a particular way (to buy, to support etc) along with the various strategies used to do so. As part of the TAP, we invited rural marketer and business owner, Tegan Buckley from Mallee Marketing, into the classroom via Webex to outline how she channels her expertise in marketing and business to help create positive promotion strategies for farming families and agribusinesses. Tegan described how the 2020 COVID restrictions meant that businesses had to get online quickly and be more nimble with their advertising and marketing, so her Mallee based business evolved very rapidly. Students were introduced to concepts such as the buyer’s journey, consumer behaviour and purchasing decisions as well as how social media marketing and video storytelling is influencing and shaping users in the Ag space and across all industries. Tegan described the 4 key pillars that she uses strategically behind the scenes when working on campaigns that relate to the buyer’s journey and shared examples of social media campaigns with our students. A really interesting session that made us all more aware of how certain types of advertising target specific audiences, thanks Tegan |
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