On the 17th of June twelve girls, accompanied by Mrs Wall and I, were invited to The Hills Grammar School to participate in a variety of extension activities around the theme of “Branching Out In Nature’s Classroom”. The beautiful bushland setting of Hills Grammar provided the inspiration for creative writing, a robotics and STEM challenge, and visual literacy activity.
Stage One students explored the bush on a sensory nature walk, collecting natural objects and noticing sounds, sights, and textures around them. They transformed their findings into imaginative bush characters and brought them to life through creative storytelling. Using figurative language, the children constructed and edited their stories, strengthening their writing skills while immersed in nature.
The scene was set for Stage Two students when they were asked to imagine that a brand-new National Park was being established in the Hills District to protect its biodiversity. The first step was to explore their “national park” and to select an object from nature to incorporate into their robotics activity. Using micro:bit and MacQueen Plus cars, they coded a vehicle to tackle conservation. Applying their creativity and engineering skills, they constructed a trailer to transport their endangered creature (soft toy!) to safety.
For Stage Three’s Visual Literacy task, the students explored how images tell stories by analysing sample texts and studying visual elements like colour, shape, and perspective. Let loose in nature with an iPad each, the students sought out interesting natural features to photograph. They then faced the challenging task of selecting only 5 or 6 images and words to respond to the provocation that the area was being sold to developers. How would they convince the authorities to preserve the natural beauty of the bush?
It was a wonderful day of exploration in nature. The students returned to Tangara buzzing but tired from their day of physical and intellectual efforts!
Mrs Angela Hacker
Head of Diverse Learning
