Deep Creek Reserve: Healthy Rivers Healthy Bay Grades 3-4

Background

Water is a scarce and finite resource that is vital for the life of every living thing on the planet. Our local waterways are part of a larger catchment that our drinking water comes from. Our activities have an impact on our local waterways and in turn the larger catchment, oceans and all the life that depends on it for survival. Students will learn about our impacts and ways to help. They will also become citizen scientists by learning how to monitor the chemical, physical and biological health of their local waterway. Key Learning Question

What is a catchment, what is our impact and ways that we can help use water more sustainably and improve the health of the waterways?

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Understand the importance of water in a global context
• Identify their local waterway (as part of a wider catchment)
• See how their activities (e.g. littering) impact that local waterway (through photos taken of their school and/or local waterway)
• Learn about the impacts on the animals that live in our creeks and rivers

Identify ways to help

Activities:

Students will:

• Interactive PowerPoint presentation with photos of the schools’ local waterway, photos of litter within the school and local stormwater drains. This emphasises that their own actions can have consequences
• Interactive – catchment story. Students will get to see how storm water is created and the issues it can cause
• Identify live macroinvertebrates from Deep Creek Reserve
• Interactive games

Victorian Curriculum

• Identify and explain the interconnections within places and between places (VCGGC073)
• Types of natural vegetation and the significance of vegetation to the environment, the importance of environments to animals and people, and different views on how they can be protected; the use and management of natural resources and waste, and different views on how to do this sustainably (VCGGK082)
• Collect data, organise into categories and create displays using lists, tables, picture graphs and simple column graphs, with and without the use of digital technologies (VCMSP149)
• Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things (VCSSU057)
• Different living things have different life cycles and depend on each other and the environment to survive (VCSSU058)
• Use formal measurements in the collection and recording of observations (VCSIS068)

Australian Curriculum: The Sustainability cross-curriculum priority

• All life forms, including human life, are connected through ecosystems on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival.
• Actions for a more sustainable future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments.
• Sustainable futures result from actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments.