School Incursions/Excursions

Tropical Trails and Science Tales in Year 3

With the end of term looming, this week for 3C has been all about staying cool, calm and collected as we complete assessment and consolidate our learning for the term.

One fantastic way that we consolidated the learning from our science unit this term, and no doubt the highlight of the week, was the Year 3 excursion to the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. After spending the term learning about living and non-living things, the Gardens provided a wildly diverse range of plants and wildlife for us to observe. 

For the first half of the day, 3C adventured around the gardens on a self-guided tour. We started our day in the Japanese Garden, where students were captivated by the tranquillity of the space, which provided a good starting point for our discussions around comparing the characteristics of non-living things. As we were leaving, though, excitement struck as we stumbled upon Costa Georgiadis and his crew from Gardening Australia, setting up their equipment to film a segment for an upcoming episode. Costa was kind enough to chat with us, pose for a picture, and even sing happy birthday to one of our students! 

We continued our trek along the Children’s Trail, down to the Tropical Dome, into the arid plant section and through the fern garden. In such a short space of time, the students were wowed by the stark contrast between the features of the plants they were seeing. Students were particularly pleased to find a Theobroma cacao, the plant we have to thank for chocolate. 

After lunch, we spent the second half of the day with our guide Malindi, who helped us focus our attention animals that live in the soil, showed us some interesting birdlife, and amazed us with some beautiful shiny chrysalises. Some students even said that they’ll try and bring their parents back next week to see if they’ve hatched!

3C had a fabulous time and I’m this will be an excursion they remember for quite a while. A massive thank you to our parent volunteers, Michael and Rebecca, for spending the day with us. THANK YOU from 3C!