Gardening
This fortnight in gardening students in years 3-6 have been mesmerised by the fascinating kingdom of Fungi.
As budding mycologists, we learned that there are an estimated 4 million types of fungi on earth, yet scientists have so far named and described around 140,000 of them including yeasts, moulds and mushrooms.
We discussed First Peoples uses of some fungi as fire carriers.
We discussed Fungi's important role as a decomposer in ecosystems and how it is classified in a kingdom of its own, but more closely related to animals than it is to plants, due to its need to acquire energy by eating other organisms.
We discussed the evolving use of mycelium in bio design and its potential as an ecological design solution to replace plastic and polystyrene packaging.
We searched for fungi in the garden, then helped with some garden maintenance such as spreading mulch, weeding, sweeping and watering.
Some classrooms have taken on a role of caring for an Oyster mushroom grow kit - one class already has them fruiting!
A massive thank you to the families who braved the cold and came along to our winter working bee, - Danielle and Michelle for organising; Ben, Sophie, Michael, Santi, Emilio and Ian. Despite the weather we managed to remove green waste, clean up the rainforest garden and nursery, and transplant a tree in anticipation of works that will impact our front garden.