Open Access College

Year 12 Earth and Environmental Science students travelled to Oaklands Wetlands as part of their Investigation Folio. The aim of this excursion was to conduct water testing to determine if the wetland was naturally improving the quality of stormwater redirected from Sturt River. Increased urbanisation has created an environment full of pollutants that can be washed into local water ways and discharged into coastal ecosystems. Urban wetlands, like Oaklands, can redirect stormwater and improve the quality of water by removing many pollutants from human activities.

Below are some quotes from student’s experience of this excursion.    

“I enjoyed going outdoors and experiencing the physical side of experiment and data collection”     “It was good to be around other people”     “I enjoyed trying new EES skills”     “It was a very interesting experience, learning about how urban ecosystems can be helped or improved”     “I really enjoyed meeting and hearing from other people in my class and learning about a part of SA that I hadn’t been to before”     “The testing and collecting data were very fun and helped me get better insight into what I want my future to look like”      “It was enjoyable and interesting doing practical, hands-on learning, and getting to work with my classmates”

Year 10 Climate Change

Open Access College taught the Year 10 Climate Change unit developed by our Geoscience Outreach Officer.  

Student Feedback 

• I enjoyed learning about the earth and interactions between systems, it was insightful toward the situations happening at human hands and would be a topic id consider taking again. 

• I like that I could choose any format of presentation and that their were very clear guidelines of what information was needed and the focus of each question. 

• It was engaging and an interesting topic overall. Something i've investigated before but there were aspects that i hadn't heard of before. 

• LOVED all the graphs, made it make a lot of sense. 

• It was so interesting. Learning about the sun and the bigger impact it has on the earth is so fun as well. 

• I liked that we got to choose our own subject. 

• I enjoyed learning about the ways that we effect the planet by creating greenhouse gases. 

• I found it interesting, and I learnt how climate change works, the greenhouse effect, and the difference between global warming and climate change. 

• I'm already interested in Climate Change and was happy that I had the opportunity to dive deeper into the subject. 

• I really liked learning about all of the signs that actualy show how climate change is affecting the planet instead of some of the simplier ones you get to see how the water is warming and how it affects the weather. 

• i think its very informing and its good to know 

• the information was new and interesting 

• I liked how interactive the lessons were, how you could engage openly 

Student work 

The assessment for this unit allows students to explore an issue caused by climate change that matters to them and identify solutions to address this issue.  

Teacher feedback 

Overall, a very good engagement and participation from my students. There was active participation during class discussion and the experience was enjoyable for myself and my students.  

I found the unit to be well-structured and easy to follow for myself and my students.  

I has so impressed by my students interest in this topic. They asked so many relevant questions during our lessons and were happy to share their experiences and knowledge related to this topic. Teaching science online can be difficult at times but this topic was the one most engaged with by my students.