22nd September 2023 |

We had a great time at Science Week 2023 with a series of fun Landcare-y, science-y workshops!

We joined the Material Institute in hosting a set of workshops for visiting high schools. Our Landcare workshop focussed on introducing the concepts of monitoring and getting to know your local patch, showing footage kindly shared by our volunteers, an incredible collection of significant items and bush tucker loaned from Rosny mob, and scats, tracks, and traces for students to handle and identify.

We had a wide age range of students, from various backgrounds, and all of them found something to excite them in the workshop. Almost everyone was captivated by our giant wedge tailed eagle display, some fantastic footage of predators and scavengers getting a feed (maybe putting them off lunch a bit), and a few even braved our mystery box which hid a surprise specimen...

Images: (Left) What's in the box? Photo by 24 Carrot Gardens. (Right) Student and specimen. Photo by Angela Reiher.

We had a small sample of biochar on display as well, which led to a long discussion with some particularly eager students on all the different forms carbon can take, and how the honeycomb-like structure of biochar that we can see under an electron microscope might be beneficial when it comes to our gardens. And they had only just started looking at the periodic table at school!

Image: Rosny mob set-up

Our workshop directly linked to out education program – Know Your Local Patch, where we provide schools with tools and resources to unlock the educational potential in their surrounding native areas, from a small garden to a bush block.

Image: Scats, tracks, and traces table. 

Very are very grateful to Material Institute and 24 Carrot Gardens for hosting us, they are a great group doing good work which complements Landcare Tasmania’s education mission well.

Our participation in these Science Week Workshops was funded by the Material Institute.  Workshops like these form part of our Education Program.