The ferocious heat and devastating fire storm that swept the Kangaroo Valley on 4 January 2020, part of the massive fires across the nation, destroyed some of the buildings and most of the environment at the College’s Glengarry campus.
As an invaluable teaching opportunity, Bannockburn staff member David Bard began photographing sites at Glengarry each week to show the bush regeneration. Geography and Science teachers used these images with their Year 10 boys learning about conservation, fire and land management. Having recently attended Glengarry, these boys were particularly provoked by the images.
Year 6 boys’ annual unit of work on bushfires was redesigned in 2019 and 2020 to see them rotate through a series of experiences at Bannockburn based on David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. This year the learning was even more ‘real-world’ as boys partnered with a non-profit and locals from nearby Lake Conjola to help re-establish residential gardens.
The provision of remote learning imagery was also investigated at Bannockburn to allow boys in Sydney the chance to experience the campus even during pandemic restrictions. At the beginning of Term 2 we provided remote learning videos/lessons for Year 8 STEM and Year 7 Mathematics teachers. These lessons were instructional (e.g. collecting honey or weighing a steer), or provocational (e.g. illustrating erosion or diseased fish). By combining the use of these lessons with props supplied from Bannockburn (such as wool, plants, and farm products), the experiences in the classroom were enhanced.
“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” David Kolb
Photo caption: Year 10 Geography and Science students followed the regeneration of the Glengarry campus.
For more ongoing research undertaken by The Scots College, read our latest Research Report 2019-2020.
