Grade 6 Outdoor Learning Day: 23 March

Stream-work makes the Dream Work

What a privilege to have Mrs Pandora Long of the Midlands Wetlands Project join us for the day on 23 March. A widely experienced educator with a particular passion for our local wetlands, Mrs Long is spearheading a drive to involve a range of local schools, including Clifton, Carlyle College, Shea O’Connor Combined School, Asithuthuke Combined School and Nottingham Road Primary School in gathering and sharing as much data as possible so as to share more, and learn more, about our beautiful wetlands.

Outdoor Learning Day included Mrs Long introducing the Midlands Wetlands Project to the Grade 6s, who then undertook a 3-part in-depth exploration of our stream. One facet, run by Mrs Long and Mr Majola, involved a Mini-SASS process – essentially finding and analysing which aquatic creepy crawlies are resident in our stream and wetlands – critical indicators of the water quality. Mr Roets and Mr Venter got down and dirty in profiling the stream – the angle of slopes at various spots, water speed, and a little information on how to gauge turbidity (it’s a real word, promise!). The third ‘base’ was an opportunity to reflect… what should and could be done to prevent erosion, what the school could do to ensure the continued health of the stream, and so on.

It was wonderful to gather as a cohort to discuss the process as a whole, and also to be able to provide the Midlands Wetlands Project with some valuable data to contribute towards the greater process.