TAP's On! was a wonderful celebration of the TAP curriculum and our very supportive community and industry partners who also posted about their involvement in our curriculum expo on social media. Thanks to Timboon Fire Brigade, Agri-tech Education and Innovation, South West TAFE, Oonagh Kilpatrick, the Chair of Food and Fibre Great South Coast (FFGSC), Richard Riordan MP, Simpson Primary School and CFA South West ...What brilliant partners we have, we love working with you too! It’s not often you see #FarmVR or #FarmAR, opposite a tram conductor, near Royal chooks, with a tractor and bandicoots, calves, SES scenarios, horses, or a fire truck, in the proximity of a dog vs drone challenge or a FarmBot encounter juxtaposed with BBQ smokers or a potential biosecurity outbreak whilst doing a water bug boogie, before being told numerous Duck Tales or a Story of a River. That doesn’t even include the versatile vegies, transitory rock stories, indigenous collages, camembert comparisons, GPS cows, Arduino achieves, workplace communication challenges, or AI exercises. Our 2023 TAP’s On! curriculum expo had it all, and even more for students, teachers and visitors. Just over 450 students from Timboon P-12 School and Simpson Primary School participated in a series of peer lead workshops held at Timboon on Thursday in a celebration of the exciting curriculum based around agriculture and community at Timboon P-12 School. Jess and Cameron from THINK.DIGITAL were our feature guests and they shared numerous immersive and interactive technologies that highlighted the role that digital technologies can play to inspire, engage and teach people more about the potential of agriculture. Children from the Timboon Kindergarten and the Kardinia Learning Centre explored our curriculum workstations visiting a range of activities around the School campus. Students also enjoyed FM Milk from Saputo, Stringers courtesy of Bega and Mainland Cheese portions from Fonterra. After our main workshops, and as an extra activity for our Preps and Year 3/4 students, they were visited by Roberto from The Connies who shared a range of cards and stories featuring local flora, fauna and biodiversity stories. The TAP in 2022-2022 was supported by the Gall, Lane, Jones, Uebergang and Vedmore Foundations with TAP’s On! sponsored by Westpac Bank and the Secondary Schools Agriculture Fund (SSAF). Thank you to our wonderful student presenters, teachers, mentors, parents, visiting educators, industry and community guests for helping us celebrate TAP's On! 2023 What a wonderful day celebrating our amazing community and the wealth of knowledge it contains! Congratulations to our engaging student, teacher and industry presenters with thanks to our supportive partners and our guests, families, teachers and school cohort for such enthusiastic participation in our 'speed dating on Ag' workshops. More photos to come in a few days. Just in case you’re still undecided about whether to visit our TAP’s On! curriculum expo today, check out these beauties! These 12 BBQ smokers are in action on site at TAP's On! today, and they were constructed by the Year 9/10 Metal Technology and VET Engineering students over the last two years, with 38 BBQ smokers made to date. As part of the Smokin’ Hot workshop, our students and guests will hear how these were designed and constructed and get to sample pork injected with maple syrup, apple cider vinegar and pear. The lamb cooked in the smokers is injected with Coca Cola and BBQ sauce and Texas rub surrounded by roasting onions. The beef brisket is covered with American mustard and Tennesse rub injected with red wine vinegar and stubby sticky sweet BBQ sauce. There are 20 chickens stuffed with roasting apples injected with apple cider vinegar and maple syrup rubbed with onion salt and sweet paprika. Hungry yet… see you there! Continuing their exploration of our school environs through their Schoolyard Safari topic, our Year 1/2 scientists were challenged to observe and draw an annotated diagram of a snail. You can see their considered examination of their mini beast subjects as they recorded details and features. Last week, they created complex drawings of bees that feature incredible detail as depicted by our Year 1/2 student cohort. Budding biologists right there! Inspired by Mark Cuthell from the Port Campbell Visitor Information Centre, our Year 5/6 students rose to the challenge and created some wonderful content for Mark and Nina to use on their website to entice visitors to the SouthWest. The target audience are the 212 000 international students studying in Victoria so we invited them to travel to our region with their families or friends as part of a focus on the new Port Campbell to Timboon Rail Trail. The tourism team were impressed with the words that resonated from our student cohort and Nina was able to highlight aspects of the students’ work in a video on the Visit 12 Apostles website. Check out the content produced by our very own travelpreneurs - https://visit12apostles.com.au/explore/nature-wildlife/treasure-the-land-we-love/a-message-from-our-future-leaders/ As they explore VCE Biology Unit 2, our Year 11 students learn about the importance of keystone species and how changes to these species can impact an ecosystem. The contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge and perspectives in understanding Australian ecosystems is considered and students are also required to develop an understanding of Bioethics to determine whether the outcome of a particular course of action is ethically acceptable. It is against this backdrop that our students have been challenged to research and learn about the proposal to reintroduce the dingo to the Grampians National Park and to view this emotive issue from various points of view. Last week we welcomed Michael Smith, the South West District Manager of Parks Victoria, who provided the students with a detailed background of the Grampians proposal. Michael challenged the students to compare the feelings they have when the words Dingo, Wild Dog and Wilkerr are used. He advised the students that language is very important and can prompt very different reactions. Michael reminded students of the importance of critically reflecting on the sources used for their fact gathering, especially when it comes to the point of view of the traditional owners of the land. The science behind the proposal of reintroducing the dingo was considered, linking it to the success of the reintroduction of the wolves into Yellowstone National Park in America. Michael reviewed risks associated with the proposal, such as opposition from land owners, visitor safety and ecological risks such as threats to the rock wallaby and impacts on fire management burning regimes. A large part of the discussion centred around the importance of the dingo (Wilkerr) as a totem animal of traditional owners. He explained that the traditional owners feel they have obligations to protect Country and that a bio-cultural landscape, having both the animals and plants present, makes Country healthy. While this proposal has been put aside for the time being, Michael said that part of his role will be to build understanding among the different community groups and to acknowledge and work through peoples’ concerns. Michael’s visit helped to promote some respectful discussion amongst the students, and while not all students have chosen a point of view on the issue, it certainly helped develop their understanding of how complex bioethical issues in the real world can be. 'Bee cool and come to Schoool.' Who can resist an invitation to TAP's On! like this? Check out the Bee invitations to family and friends for our TAP curriculum expo on Thursday 9th November from our budding Year 1/2 bee experts - You won't BEE-LIEVE This! Our year 3/4 class and teachers were delighted to see that their Love letters to the Land, as part of the 25th Years of Junior Landcare celebrations, were shared in our local paper, The Cobden Timboon Coast Times. It was great to see these Junior Landcarians grace the front page of the paper and share their stories of how they will help protect, improve or enhance our local environment. Our second week of digital technologies, animation and story telling to reinforce farm safety messages with Gareth and Alex from One Day Studios was full on! Gareth explained that movies were like onion rings with lots of layers and that most animations were recorded with 24 frames per second. The students leant how prep a scene, prepare details, record, then edit their Claymation movies including titles and sound effects with humour often used to convey a message to make it stick. Reminiscent of the Metro Trains’s “Dumb Ways To Die” advertisement, our movies featured accidents, fires, rollovers, burns, crashes, squashes and falls but all alluded to the importance of farm safety and keeping our farm families safe. Some of these movies will be featured as part of the Year 5/6 students’ animal and machinery workshops at TAP’s On! |
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