Cleaning up rubbish at Merri Creek

Inquiry actions for ‘Survival’ down at the Merri Creek.

During our time at the Merri Creek, some children decided to take an action that our ‘survival’ inquiry group had come up with – pick up rubbish. They even made videos about what they were doing. Check them out!

Observations at Merri Creek

As teachers we are really enjoying giving the children the cameras both, video and still, as it gives us a way of finding out what the children are thinking and doing, as well as discovering their perspective of the world around them. They really notice the small details in the world around them and their photos give a sense of the wonder and awe that they feel. These photos seem both scientific and artistic.

The kids have also been experimenting with recording their observations of these walks in various ways. Here is a snapshot of them recording their findings.

They have also been participating in imaginative play,

We're making food for the ground, food for nature.

Making connections and teaching us a few things,

Did you know wattle is related to beans?

And hypothesizing.

Could be fungus.
That is so weird.
It might be sick, cos it has no leaves at all.

'Cos it (pollution) gets down there and then when the water rises
all the rubbish goes in the water and it gets in the trees.

Thank you to Sarah and Libby (plus the delightful little boy) for joining us on this lovely morning.

Circuits & Switches

Recently the machines group have been investigating electricity in their pursuit of making a robot museum.  We have been experimenting and playing with batteries, lights, motors and alligator clips

We have been exploring how electricity and motors work for some weeks, and the children have been experimenting to find out how to put together their circuits, and what things they need to include and to check in order to make their motors work.  The main issues that they have discovered are making a "whole loop" and connecting the "metal to metal", which is tricky with alligator clips and requires some practice.  

Many children raised the issue of safety, particularly around water, which "can be really dangerous and you can get a shock".  We therefore had a conversation about conductivity, and just why we always have to make sure that the metal is clipped to wire and not to the plastic casing.

We used these principles of circuits to make some simple switches using cardboard and aluminum foil - when the cardboard is squeezed together the foil covered ends touch each other and connect the circuit, turning the motor on.

Soon we will start construction of our robots!  We will let you know when they are ready for display.

Making the world a better place

Inquiry into Survival - Monday, 15 October 2012

What actions are we going to take to make the world a better place?

After sharing all of our Compass Points (a type of thinking routine) from the end of term three, we decided as a group to focus on three steps or actions. We then split into three teams to make a poster or rough plan detailing why we are taking this action and how we are going to do it.

I took videos of each group doing their presentations and the following week we watched these videos, making notes of the main points, which are detailed below. 

Picking up rubbish
Why?	How?
So that animals don’t eat the rubbish and die Rubbish might go down the drains and into the ocean	Wear gloves or use tongs to pick it up Pick it up every day until there’s no rubbish left Put it in plastic bags* Make sure animals can’t get to the rubbish pile Pick up rubbish in our school and parks near our school * “But that’s pollution as well.”

 

Stop people cutting down as many trees
Why?	How?
So animals don’t die So animals don’t lose their homes We need trees to breath	Recycling Buy recycled toilet paper, paper, envelopes

But, we sometimes have to cut down trees because:

• some trees might fall on people 
• some trees are sick and dying 
• we need to make paper 

Grow more native plants
Why?	How?
To make the world a better place So minibeasts, birds and animals can have a home So no creatures or anything dies	Make a stall selling native plants and use the money to buy plants for us to grow. And this means that people are planting natives everywhere, because the people buying them will be planting them too! Do jobs to earn money to buy more plants We need strategies to plant seeds faster, like tools and more people to help.

If you have any ideas or ways that you can support us in our quest to make the world a better place, we’d love your help! Talk with your child at home about this inquiry – they’re really quite passionate!