Today the Year 2/3 class went on an excursion. We had two different areas of focus. The first was a HASS focus where we gathered as much information as we could about who (and what) uses the Blue Lake, and for what purposes. We will also be using what we’ve seen today as a catalyst for studying how the Blue Lake area has changed over time.
The second focus was a Science/Geography focus where we learned about groundwater – how water gets underground, the flow of groundwater into the Blue Lake and towards the ocean, and how to keep groundwater clean.
It was a really fun day! And it has given us lots to learn more about over the next few weeks.
We went on a tour of the Blue Lake Pumping Station. We learned a lot about the history of Mt Gambier’s water supply, groundwater, the animals in and around the lake, and the Craitbul Dreaming story.
After our Pumping Station visit the children recorded what they had learned.
Then we went and watched Sid’s Lid being emptied. It is a giant filter that the water goes through before going into the Cave Gardens. It filters out rubbish that would otherwise end up in our groundwater.
Most of the rubbish today was from leaves, but there were also plastic forks, chip packets, plastic wrap, and even a dummy!
Then Aaron, from the Council, took us to the library carpark and explained how it has been built to minimise the pollution of groundwater from the oil that comes from cars.
Aaron then showed us a groundwater model. He placed different liquids on it to represent oil, excess fertilisers, detergents, and weedsprays. He also put 100s and 1000s on it to represent litter.
Then he sprayed the model with water to represent rain. All of the liquids ran and ended up in the groundwater through a cave. He then lifted the top of the model off to show us the contaminated groundwater.