Going Green – School holiday fun at our Sustainability Education Centre

Excursion Program Overview

Bring your multi-age School Holiday Program (aka. Vacation Care or Outside School Hours Care Program) children to explore our Sustainability Education Centre to investigate your choice of themes:

Living Things: Explore the living things found in our native gardens, compost bin and worm farms and how we can go green becoming superheroes to protect them!

Waste Warriers: Discover what can go in a recycling bin, and the journey  items go on and why the 5R’s are so important.

Activities to choose from include:

• Biodiversity Hunt – Students explore our garden, search for and collect amazing minibeasts then observe their live specimens using a video microscope. We have fun exploring body parts and adaptations of a variety of minibeasts.
• Compost Capers and Incredible Shrinking Machine – Students venture through our incredible shrinking machine to explore the inner workings of a compost bin then get to meet our wriggly worms face to face to understand the importance of composting and soil health.
• Dress up – Students relive the composting process through a costumed, interactive drama.  They get to play a variety of characters including a talking magpie, glowing sun, wriggly worms, butterflies, buzzing bees and many more! Alternatively, they can play act the journey of an aluminium can from the supermarket shelf to home, the recycling centre back to the supermarket. Characters include shoppers, shop keepers, waste recyclers and truck drivers through to fire dancers and can painters!
• Waste not Want not – Discover the journey of waste through our Wastelands interpretive room which guides visitors on the journey of Glass, Plastic, Paper, Aluminium and Steel from raw material to finished products. Learn what happens to rubbish as it goes down the drains, explore how long recyclable items take to break down in landfill and how we are now turning waste into worth. 
• Recycling Relay – Students examine common items and decide which can be recycled and determine which are single use that end up in landfill.  Explore the 5Rs inverted pyramid (Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to identify the various points at which waste can be reduced.
• Lounging Lizards – Learn all about lizards.  Students also get to make their own lizard motel!
• Fabulous Frogs – Learn all about frogs and how to make a frog pond to attract them to your garden!
• Poster Design – Students will view a short video to gain insight into the problems caused by plastic waste entering our oceans, learn how to prevent waste from entering our ocean and then develop a Poster to show others how to care for and protect our oceans so they can be enjoyed by future generations!

Two Hour Programs: Choose 3-4 Activities (group max 25)
Four Hour Programs: Choose 5-6 Activities (group max 25)

Both programs conclude with:

Call to Action
Students are empowered to create positive change around waste reduction and our shared environment.

Notes and inclusions

More than 4 classes can be accommodated by special request; only available during a 4 hour program.

Certificate and Conservation Code to reinforce learnings
Post event, participants will be issued a Certificate of Participation and Conservation Code for each class that students are encouraged to sign and hang in the classroom as a reminder of their learning’s and their commitment to protect the environment and GO GREEN!

We encourage participants to make drawings of their visit to depict what they learnt so they can share them with family and friends to inspire them to also go green! We love receiving them post program, so don’t forget to take photos and share them with us too!

Victorian Curriculum Links:

SCIENCE – SCIENCE UNDERSTANDING
Science as a human endeavour
– People use science in their daily lives (VCSSU041)
Biological Sciences
– Living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where their basic needs including food, water and shelter are met (VCSSU042)
– Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (VCSSU043)
Chemical Sciences
– Objects are made of materials that have observable properties (VCSSU044)
– Everyday materials can be physically changed or combined with other materials in a variety of ways for particular purposes (VCSSU045)
Earth Sciences
– Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape; daily and seasonal changes affect everyday life (VCSSU046)
– Earth’s resources are used in a variety of ways (VCSSU047)
SCIENCE INQUIRY SKILL
Questioning and Predicting
– Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events (VCSIS050)
Planning and Conducting
– Participate in guided investigations, including making observations using the senses, to explore and answer questions (VCSIS051)
Analysing and Evaluating
– Compare observations and predictions with those of others (VCSIS054)
Communicating
Represent and communicate observations and ideas about changes in objects and events in a variety of ways (VCSIS055)
GEOGRAPHY: Geographical Concepts and Skills – Place, space and interconnection
– Describe and explain where places and activities are located (VCGGC058)
Geographical Knowledge – Places and our connection to them
– Reasons why some places are special and some places are important to people and how they can be looked after (VCGGK069)
DRAMA: Levels 1 and 2 – Explore and Express Ideas & Drama Practices
– Explore roles, characters and dramatic action in dramatic play, improvisation and process drama (VCADRE021)
– Use voice, facial expression, movement and space to imagine and establish role and situation (VCADRD022)

The Victorian Curriculum F-10 content elements are © VCAA, reproduced by permission. Victorian Curriculum F-10 elements accurate at time of publication. The VCAA does not endorse or make any warranties regarding this resource. The Victorian Curriculum  F-10 and related content can be accessed directly at the VCAA website.