River Detectives is an exciting education initiative of Catchment Management Authorities inspiring teachers and students to understand, appreciate and care for their local waterway through engaging, cross-curricular, citizen-science activities. Timboon P-12 School were approached by the River Detectives team to describe how this appreciation of our local waterways has filtered - deliberate pun intended - across our curriculum under the TAP banner. The story of Timboon’s implantation of the River Detectives program has been shared to help inspire other schools in the Corangamite CMA’s catchment area by capturing the shape, flavour and diversity of River Detectives at Timboon P-12. . https://www.riverdetectives.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Timboon-School-Story-Of-Change-2023.pdf Thank you to the CCMA for this opportunity to share our River Detectives story Have you 'herd' what we can TAP into in 2024? The staffroom TAP noticeboard is designed to let teachers across the whole Timboon P-12 campus know about topics or curriculum activities created by other teachers, showcase local and regional business, creative ideas or potential partnerships and as a springboard for new ideas to inspire their students in 2024. What about this? Or this? Or this? Or this? We proudly share the 2023 TAP brochure that describes a very busy year for our students, staff and TAP community / industry contributors. The focus is on 'TAP 2023 - Learning within our community' reflecting on the 'New' and 'Tried and True' programs we have offered this year. Thank you to everyone concerned and to Anne Frazer, the editor of our 2023 TAP newsletter, who documented the TAP journey and Robyn Vale for compiling our TAP data. As always, we would like to acknowledge this support and thank our students and school families who supported these endeavors and tasks so enthusiastically. The TAP is a real school-community partnership as it would not have existed for over eleven years without the active support of so many in our community. The 2023 TAP newsletter is also attached as a PDF in the "What is TAP?" section of the TAP Blog. We explored paddock to plate pathways with sheep, ducks, beef, chickens and dairy, learnt about chemistry at a whiskey distillery, uncovered convoluted career opportunities, digested microbial science with an artisan baker, investigated new technology in agribusinesses, discovered the importance of healthy waterways, savored a Week of Tastes, experienced seasonal changes on a farm, learnt about implications of global trade on local markets and trialed GPS for cows. Students curated Curdies Stories, investigated the principles of dam construction, explored the geology of our Shipwreck coastline, examined the statistics behind turf management, unearthed bandicoot habitats, appreciated cheese and camembert, probed body systems, made many community connections, cuddled goats, calves, chooks and dogs, investigated the psychology behind marketing whilst discovering digital technologies and THINK.DIGITAL at TAP's On! Over 675 people have shared their expertise and passion for their community with us since the TAP started in August 2012 with more than 170 individuals involved during field trips or welcomed into our classrooms in person or remotely in 2023. ‘TAPbuilt: A community of educators’ was showcased to a variety of local, community and regional and state government organisations including educators at the PIEFA Conference while our Year 5/6 TAP into Farm Safety unit was shared on VFF podcasts and the Cream of the Crop conference to help reinforce the importance of keeping families safe on farm. Thank you to our inventive teachers and students, for continuously tackling both proven and pioneering options; and our creative, supportive school community for your ongoing support of the TAP. Yep, just another normal TAP year! Recently the TAP supported Matt Porter from the Neil Porter Legacy (NPL) during the launch of the NPL Community for Careers: Business Action Group. The 30 businesses in attendance learnt that the idea for the group is to form a collective where we can work together to show the young people of our region the career opportunities available to them and try to address workforce shortages some industries are facing. During the presentation, Matt described the background and emerging role of the NPL in our region while Iain Jackson, from Brauer College spoke about the benefits to schools who are already on board and the areas they have covered. TAP Coordinator, Andrea Vallance, described the TAP model and outlined how the NPL has evolved into a supersized TAP and why the DemoDAIRY Foundation supported NPL to run activities to promote careers in agriculture and dairy. An interesting discussion ensued with lots of creative areas shared, looking forward to where this leads. #communityforcareers. The lavender harvest on our TAP lavender farm is a great example of team work and of many efficient hands working together as several Year 7-10 students and Ms Fox assisted Ms Wakefield to complete our 2023 lavender season. The students reaped the Riverina Alan florets using battery operated trimmers, and the more traditional sickles and secateurs and Ms Wakefield distilled the flowers to produce lavender oil. Bunches of lavender were gifted to staff members and with some lavender bunches left in the Timboon CBD for community members to collect and enjoy. Thank you to everyone who helped gather our aromatic crop. Tasked with writing a newspaper report as part of their Year 7 English assessment, Anna and Lucy wrote about their Term 2, Cows Create Careers Science unit. The students were directed to select something from throughout the year and write an article that will be collated as part of the Year 7 newspaper. Combining Science and Literacy worked well as the students had to research and review their topic, describe the unit, obtain quotes and contextualise their learning while encouraging other students to be involved in 2024. Check it out! Baringa in 2023 focused on the Rainbow Serpent that wove the theme of diversity across the tapestry of cultures and backgrounds that make up our School community. The TAP was once again able to thread it’s way through this curriculum to enrich our offerings at Timboon P-!2 School. Our Schoolyard Safari Science unit is encouraging students to observe and record the various mini beasts around them. The students have recently completed annotated scientific drawings of bees, check out these wonderful representations of one of nature’s most industrious insects As part of the TAP, we are incredibly fortunate to work with such generous, enthusiastic and creative partners such as HDLN and the team at the Port Campbell Visitor Information Centre. Inspired by a story in the Cobden Timboon Coast Times on the Year 3/4 ‘Love Letters to the Land’ Junior Landcare activity, Nina Devlin from the Information Centre contacted us to share this creative experience with visitors to our region. The respect and thanks for Kirrae Whurrong stewardship voices in the students’ letters resonated with the Tourism team and they believe that the youth voice for environment is of interest to visitors who share these values and can be a potential moderator for visitor behaviour in our local environment. Nina fashioned a BLOG on the visit 12 Apostles website to highlight the care and respect for nature held by our local youth as part of the content developed for the Twelve Apostles Trail and the Treasure the Land we love campaigns, check it out. https://visit12apostles.com.au/explore/nature-wildlife/treasure-the-land-we-love/love-letters-to-the-land/ |
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March 2024
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