Brisbane Urban Environmental Education Centre Primary School Programs

Year Program Description Time required Availability Group Size Curriculum Links

P

Schoolyard explorers

In this program, students will: • Use their senses to investigate the needs of living things, both animals and plants, in natural

and man-made environments. • Investigate the consequences of living things not having basic needs met.• Consider the impact of human activity and natural events on the availability of these basic

needs.• Describe some sustainable practices that they could implement to protect Earth’s resources and

support the provision of the needs of living things in a display for the classroom.

INCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 1: Our living world

Me on the map

In this program, students will: • Develop an understanding of ‘sense of place’.• Layer maps to gain an understanding of their place in the world, the country and their city.• Explore their special places around school and document using photographs.• Create a bird’s eye view map of their school and special places within it using map symbols.

INCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Geography C2C Unit 1: What is my place like?

1

Habitat hunters

In this program, students will: • Identify the basic needs of animals in a habitat.• Consider the links between a healthy/unhealthy habitat and the presence of living things.• Explore their local environment using ‘magic eyes’, iPads and digital microscopes.• Recognise the impacts of human actions on habitats.• Suggest actions that can be taken to improve sustainable practices and support the provision

of the basic needs of living things within a habitat.

EXCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 1: Living adventure

My place, your place, our place

In this program, students will: • Identify built, natural and managed areas within the school environment.• Explore examples of each of these areas around school and discuss why we categorise them

in this way.• Create a detailed field sketch of an area within school that illustrates the built, natural and

managed environment.• Propose actions that can be taken to improve an area in need of a little care.

INCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Geography C2C Unit 1: How do people use places?

2

It’s a small world

In this program, students will: • Locate the places with which they are connected on a world map using geographical language.• Use a human graph to investigate the places their class has the most connections with.• Produce a digital presentation that details their links with a place and why that place is

important to them.

INCURSION

Half / full day

All year Single class Geography C2C Unit 2: How are people connected to places?

Water warriors

In this programs, students will: • Collect and classify macro invertebrates according to sensitivity.• Use digital microscopes and magnifiers to assist with identification.• Analyse collected data to assess water quality of local waterway.• Take part in a game of ‘Healthy Waterways Hopscotch’ to consider the effects human activity is

having on the health of waterways.• Propose actions that can be taken to protect local waterways.

EXCURSION

Half day

Single class Science C2C Unit 4: Save planet Earth.

Year Program Description Time required Availability Group Size Curriculum Links

3

Looking at living

This program provides the opportunity for students to explore their local creek and investigate the plants and animals living there. Students will: • Investigate living things within the creek environment using ‘magic eyes’ and digital

microscope. • Identify and group living things based on observable features. • Assess the quality of the creek according to the living things found there. • Consider the impact of human activity on habitats and discuss what we can do to mitigate

this.

INCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 1: Is it living?

The times they are a changing

In this program, students will: • Investigate the continuity and change that has occurred in their local area. • Examine historical photographs of Brisbane and their local area and compare them with

modern day images. • Discuss Aboriginal history and the impact of European settlement of their local area. • Undertake an exploratory walk (with iPads for photography) of the local area to identify

continuity and change in both the built and natural environment and hypothesise how this may affect the residents of the area.

• Produce a digital presentation of their findings for assessment.

INCURSION / EXCURSION

Full day

All year Single class History C2C Unit 2: Exploring continuity and change in local communities..

4

Save our soil

This program provides the opportunity for students to explore their school environment and investigate the impacts and effects of erosion caused by humans and natural processes. Students will: • Investigate different types of soil and its characteristics in a series of experiments within the

school grounds. • Consider the cause and effect of erosion in the school environment. • Examine compost under the digital microscope to discover the ingredients of soil. • Recognise that human actions can reduce or stop the impact of erosion.

INCURSION

Full day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 1: Here today, gone tomorrow

What a load of rubbish!

In this program, students will: • Use a waste timeline to predict decomposition times. • Investigate and discuss reduce, reuse, recycle, replace. • Discuss Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples custodial responsibility and past/present

views on the sustainable use of resources. • Devise and recommend strategies to protect a particular environment – propose action plan. • Establish experiment to look at decomposition of everyday items over time.

INCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Geography C2C Unit 1: What is my place like?

   

Year Program Description Time required Availability Group size Curriculum

5

Missing creatures unit

In this program students are signed up as Temporary Investigating Agents to investigate the real life scenario of creatures that have disappeared. The investigators will also discover the importance of habitat preservation in maintaining biodiversity. Students will: • Investigate changes to the environment. • Discuss how species were affected by these changes. • Consider why these changes occurred. • Discover who the survivors were. • Investigate if change is threatening the biodiversity of other areas and why this change is

occurring. They will also discuss what can be done to minimise this change.

EXCURSION

Full day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 1: Survival in the Australian environment

City streets, city beach

In this program, students will: • Examine the relationships between the human and natural environment at South Bank. • Consider how South Bank is managed to reduce the impact of flood on the human and natural

environment. • Use secondary sources (satellite images, augmented reality) to analyse the area’s susceptibility

to natural disaster (flood). • Create a digital presentation supported by maps and photos to demonstrate understanding of

key concepts and what can be done to manage areas such as South Bank to mitigate the effects of natural disaster..

EXCURSION

Full day

All year Single class Geography C2C Unit 2: Exploring how places are changed and managed by people.

Convict clues

An engaging one-day convict program designed to develop the historical inquiry skills detailed in the Australian National Curriculum. Students will: • Visit the centre to adopt the role of an archeologist and take part in a simulated dig. • Interrogate a variety of primary and secondary sources to build a picture of everyday life in

convict Brisbane. • Put their skills to the test on a city tour of Convict Brisbane where they will decipher clues to

uncover the importance of each of five sites during the times of the penal colony. • Use engaging digital technology in the form of iBooks and an audio diary to learn about a

convict’s experiences at each location and gain a fuller picture of what life may have been like. An optional series of pre-excursion lesson ideas and resources, together with a teacher’s booklet, are available on a disc to be used in the classroom before the visit to the centre.

EXCURSION

Half day

All year Single class History C2C Unit 1: Exploring the development of British colonies in Australia.

6

Catchment studies

This program provides the opportunity for students to explore a local creek environment, investigating the relationship between the growth and survival of living things and the physical conditions of the environment. Students will: • Explore a local creek environment and assess the quality of the water by examining the types of

macro invertebrates found in the local habitat. • Chemically and electronically test for a range of environmental pollutants and consider their

origins. • Evaluate the impact of human behaviour on the quality of water in creek catchments and

consider management strategies that may help to protect our local waterways.

EXCURSION

Half day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 4: Life on Earth

Power up: power down

Students visit BUEEC’s onsite Education for Sustainability Learning Centre, where they will: • Learn about the different forms of energy and energy transfer. • Engage in a series of investigations relating to sustainable energy and energy efficiency in a

laboratory setting. • Consider alternative forms of energy and their environmental benefits. • Use digital devices to measure the amount of energy consumed by everyday appliances • Consider actions that can be taken to reduce the amount of energy consumed at home and in

school.

EXCURSION

Full day

All year Single class Science C2C Unit 2: Energy and electricity

 Year Program Description Time

required Availability Group size Curriculum

6 Who do you think we are?

Students investigate the development of Australia as a diverse society post 1900. In groups, students take ownership of a specific migrant group to gain an understanding of the journeys they have taken and the impacts they have had on the city of Brisbane and Australia as a whole.Throughout the day students will: • Interrogate primary and secondary sources to investigate their assigned migrant group. • Consider push and pull factors that influence the movement of people • Produce a colour coded map to illustrate the influence of different migrant groups on the West

End area of Brisbane. • Create a digital presentation detailing why their migrant group arrived in Brisbane and the

positive impact they have had on the cultural landscape of the city..

EXCURSION Full day

All year Single class History C2C Unit 2: Investigating the development of Australia as a diverse nation.

5 – 6 Making it better

This two-day program addresses aspects of the ‘Learning and Wellbeing’ framework, which encourages students to develop a positive ethos that creates a sense of belonging and self-responsibility, leading to positive behaviour, improved student attendance and achievement. • The program is a mix of instructional sessions and challenging practical activities where

students will develop goal setting, teamwork, communication and leadership skills. • Provides opportunities for middle school teachers to assess how their cohort works together as

a group and prepares students for the final years of primary school and progression into high school.

Two days - either in

school or at the Centre

(Newmarket State School

Campus)

All year Single class Learning and Wellbeing Framework

 

Brisbane Urban Environmental Education Centre Phone: (07) 3552 7111 :: Fax (07) 3552 7100 :: P.O. Box 3504 Newmarket Q. 4051 www.urbaneec.eq.edu.au