Term 3 in Enviro Science

This term we are deepening our understanding of global heating and climate change, including a focus on food security. We will be linking this with our inquiry projects on connections with Asia, specifically the ‘Gondwanan’ part of Asia that was connected to Australia when we were all Gondwanaland. 

With the Foundies and Juniors, we will hone in on the vulnerable animals and plants of Gondwanan/Equatorial Asia, and with the Middles and Seniors we will extend to evolutionary geology, food security, salinity and sea-level rises. We are focussing on physical science experiments and making food to break up the heavier content-learning on these serious matters.

In the garden, we will be planting Asian food plants, including using the greenhouse as a mini sub/tropical biome. The garden beds for the Foundies and Juniors are busy growing ‘green manure’ to feed our soil back the nitrogen and other nutrients that were sucked out during the Summer garden. The garden beds of the Middles and Seniors have been carefully planted according to rotational practices, following summer produce with more nitrogen giving greens.

We continue our yearlong focus on seasons including the Eastern Kulin seasonal calendar, in which it is the last phase of Waring (wombat) season and moving into Guling (wattle) season. We are also continuing to engage with Yaaki Barring throughout the term with every class participating in planting hundreds of new plants we purchased with our Junior Landcare grant.

The Middles continue to do an excellent job of conducting weekly compost audits, keeping the whole school on track with reducing our methane emissions, and the Seniors are doing a wonderful job of caring for our chickens, Baba (the black Silkie) and Hummus (the bantam Sussex). Thank you also to the families who have cared for the chickens on the holidays and every weekend!

We always appreciate helpers when we do cooking so please keep your eye out for the call out on Sentral. We are cooking this week so please consult your child’s specialist timetable to see when they are in Enviro Science. 

The recipe this week is Curry Puffs - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R38K1Nhvd0ojjPys_fv0tVfnAnNlRYsieBHvRGoqTMU/edit?usp=sharing

Happy midwinter/Waring!

Alicia and Shal 😀