Looking to kill two birds with the one stone ? Term 3 is full of environmental events that link perfectly to the River Detectives program ! There are lots of opportunities to get involved and relate your learning to real life events in your community and beyond.
If you’re sitting down during the holidays to plan Term 3, here’s some support to save you some time. If this email hurts your brain, just file it away for when the time comes . . . .
JULY
- Plastic Free July; Plastics in waterways and oceans is a huge issue. Come up with an action plan to reduce your plastic waste at school and home with resources at the Plastic Free July website. At the River Detectives website you will find lots of great videos to explore the impact of plastics on our waterways with students. Please take care viewing as these images/issues can be confronting for students;
There are some great picture story books to explore the topic such as ‘Louie and Snippy Save The Sea’ or encourage your students to write their own . . Rubbish in the River (riverdetectives.net.au
- National Tree Day; Schools Tree Day is coming up on Friday 26th July followed by National Tree Day (for community) on Sunday 28th July. You could spruce up some gardens at school or work with a local Landcare/Friends group on some revegetation at a waterway? There are useful resources to enhance a planting event at the toolkit tab of the Tree Day website. From the River Detectives website you might be interested in;
AUGUST
- Platypus month; Check out these resources from the River Detectives website;
- Science Week (10-18th); Make a pact to do your water quality test this week. Conduct your monthly water quality test or think of other ways to use your equipment:
- have students bring in samples from home / their dam / another waterway and test for salinity, turbidity, pH and phosphorus
- tweak samples by adding salt / fertiliser / sediment to see how this impacts salinity, phosphorus and turbidity results
- there are some great extensions to water quality testing in our themed activity matrix
Head to the Science Week website for more ideas.
SEPTEMBER
- Biodiversity Month; Spring is alive with biodiversity. It’s a great time to immerse your students in nature
Don’t forget we love to see what you’re up to. Leave a comment below or even better, send your regional coordinator photos/work samples so we can highlight your efforts and share good ideas with other River Detectives schools!
And don’t forget if you’re a ResourceSmart School there may be actions you can make progress on by participating in these events.
