Year 7 Science Excursion to Melbourne Zoo

Year 7 students participated in an excursion to the Melbourne Zoo in Term 3. Students were required to learn valuable observation and classification skills to organise into groups based on shared characteristics in a learning program, Animal Classification and Adaptations. The program was to provide a holistic approach that has been designed to foster student inquiry and investigation into various animal’s adaptations, understanding their environments and specific threats, bringing the science of the animal kingdom to life. Students were challenged to classify animals, determine their individual adaptations which included structural, physiological and behavioural that aided with their survival in the wild. Students also learnt food chains and feeding patterns of animals which enabled them to thrive in their environment and ensure species survival.

The program allowed students to actively research and collect specific information on several different animals and provided an organised workshop in which students were lead in an intriguing and insightful discussion by a facilitator on the various skull structures and feeding patterns of different animals. Students were then taken along to an interesting up-close encounter with a specific animal, either otters or lemurs. The animals were fed, and students were allowed to observe and discuss behavioural patterns with the facilitator. The program encouraged students to examine a diverse range of animals and their interactions with their ecosystems. Students were guided to explore the fragile nature of food webs, the roles of predators and prey and human impact on the survival of these organisms.

All students were excited and fascinated with the interesting facts and figures they learnt through a captivating fieldtrip to the Melbourne Zoo, understanding and exploring the vastly diverse world of wonder that exist.

Last term Year 7 Home Groups went to the zoo as part of our Classification and Ecosystems unit in Science. It was a great experience. We learnt and gathered a lot of information about the animals to use in class. My favourite part was visiting the lemur enclosure where we could see the lemurs interact with each other freely without the restrictive glass. We had a talk with an experienced zoologist who showed us the bones of some animals which we had to identify. We also visited many different animal enclosures and learnt about the habitats and diets of different animals. Overall, the zoo experience was a fun and creative way to learn about classification.

Tiana Mendizabal (7.1)

Visiting the zoo was an enjoyable experience. We spent time in groups observing different types of animals. My personal favourite animal was the otter and my group saw them being fed. During the excursion, each group went to the learning shack, where we were given skulls and bones to figure out what animals they belonged to. I was given a koala skull, but we all thought it was a rat or kangaroo head! All in all, the excursion was a wonderful experience where we could bond more with different students and learn about why animals are so diverse in shapes and features.

Isabel Alcordo (7.3)

Vinita Seago

Senior School Teacher

Year 7 History Excursion to the Hellenic Museum

On Tuesday 29 November, our Home Groups 7.1 and 7.3 attended an excursion to the Hellenic Museum. We drove to the city via charter bus and arrived there around recess time. At the Museum we were accompanied by two of the staff members who helped us learn about ancient Greek civilization. They taught us about the topics of Warfare, Mythology, disease, art and ancient Greek traditions. This helped us understand a bit about how the ancient Greeks would have lived their lives thousands of years ago.

To make the learning of ancient history more exciting we did activities in groups. These activities consisted of drawing a historic moment on papyrus paper made from papyrus plants / reeds. Many students captured the historic moments really well and ended up with a great papyrus drawing. There was also an activity where we were split into two groups. Group A studied and learnt about Classical Warfare and great battles whereas group B participated in a hypothesizing task where we had to hypothesize the aftermath or result of an event where a Greek Woman’s husband and son dies. Most Year 7s hypothesized that the women would have had to remarry to maintain a stable income and wellbeing. Overall, all the students experienced an amazing opportunity to learn about Ancient Greek history and events. We all had an amazing time followed by a lively and ecstatic bus ride back to school and a final bell dismissal.

Blake Saloyedoff (7.3)

We began our trip to the museum by listening to our hosts talk about Ancient Greek history. They explained some interesting facts that we didn’t know previously. We continued the day by splitting into groups and participating in activities related to life in Ancient Greece. These activities consisted of learning the struggles of being a widowed woman and the cures used for medical problems. After our lunch break, we started our next activity, this was looking at old artifacts that the museum had acquired such as pottery that painted a picture of life in these times. This included learning about the different types of vases and pots and what they were used for. We analysed the paintings on these pots and learnt that they each told different stories through their details. I really enjoyed my time on this excursion, it was informative, exciting, and entertaining!

Ailee Howarth (7.3)

Some things that we learnt at the museum were the different time periods, like the bronze age and classical era, we were shown different artifacts from the time periods and talked about how they were made and what they are. We were also told about pottery and the messages that they paint on to them. The most interesting thing for me was the realistic statue, it was so cool to look at all the features. There were some facts that l didn’t know before. One of them was, that the men used to sit in a room and drink wine from an odd-shaped cup that looked like a bowl and once they drink to a certain point it would look like the wine was the ocean for the boats that were painted on the inner rim of the bowl.

Amarlia Newnham (7.1)

On the History excursion to the Hellenic Museum we learnt about Ancient Greece and daily life during the time. For the first part of our excursion, we were split into groups and explored a specific aspect of daily life. My group learnt about sickness and death. The Greeks definitely had some strange and absurd ways of curing diseases! For example, they drained bad blood from patients with fevers. Although they had odd treatments, they shaped the way we perceive and utilise medicine today. After viewing a few artefacts, we had fun using reeds to draw on papyrus papers scenes from a normal day in Ancient Greece. I drew a boat exporting and importing goods on Athens’ shores since it was a significant pursuit of Athens. After enjoying lunch outdoors, we continued with learning about pottery and observing artefacts. It was interesting to see how each jar and jug had a story depicted on it, especially myths about the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses. It was intriguing to learn about Dionysus and how he and his wife met just by a few paintings on a wedding Calyx Krater.

Isabel Alcordo (7.3)

Carl Bird

Senior School Teacher

Prep Nativity