Year 6 students have recently undertaken an education tour of the national capital They were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia's history, culture. heritage and democracy.
The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.
Monday - BY AMALIA AND GRACE
On Monday, Year 6 left for its 5-day trip to Canberra. We arrived on time and soon left for Canberra with our two teachers. Our bus driver's name was Scott. We had a stop on the way to Canberra around one pm. When we got back on the bus, we left for parliament house. Our tour guide’s name was Seth, and he was funny and great.
When I went in the parliament house, I was mesmerised by all the marble. We got a snack of frozen yogurt and water at the parliament house before we went in. They explained to us that us kids were the most important people in Australia. The politicians are here to serve us which is why they have the green and red rooms and their offices in the foyer of the building to remind them and resemble that they are working for us. We had a tour of the parliament house and we also found out that no one can stand in the middle of parliament house. There is a fountain meters deep or a flagpole meters high that are in the middle of the parliament house so everyone in Australia is represented as one.
After the tour of the Parliament house, we got to do parliamentary role play. The rule that the government team was trying to bring in was that there should be free Wi-Fi on all public transport. The opposition was against, but the cross bench decided to go with the government and the government side won. After that we left back to our accommodation at the Carotel motel. We were all very excited to see our cabins.
Each cabin had its own bathroom, kitchen, tv and a few other appliances. For our beds there were a few different options. You could sleep in a bunkbed or a single bed in the first room or in a double bed in the second room. You could also sleep in one of the two fold-out beds in the lounge room. Until we were called for dinner, everyone was talking, moving in and going to other cabins. In every cabin we had four people. The cabins were also very cosy and family style which made us feel quite comfortable. We all had our own room keys that we were responsible for. If we lost the key, our cabin would not have electricity. They also had towels, extra doonas and extra warm blankets to help us survive the freezing cold temperatures every night in Canberra. The meals in the dining hall were also very yummy. We ate chicken leg with steamed vegetables and rice. A lot of people thought that it was really poor quality but I think that it tasted really good. For dessert we had chocolate cake with the best icing you have ever tasted because it was Skye's birthday. Her cake had sprinkles on it. Then afterwards, we went to a common room. We had lots of playing in the common rom and had a good time before going to sleep exhausted and with memory’s for ever of a good, fun day.
Year 6 Camp Canberra
Tuesday - by Nico and Josh
At 7 am we woke up and had breakfast. The boys and I ate Coco Pops and Rice Bubbles. We also had some apple juice. We had half an hour before we left to go to the Old Parliament House. In the half hour we played Uno and watched some Peppa Pig. Then we went on an hours trip to Old Parliament House. We watched an educational video on the voting system and hot it started and then we learnt how to conduct our own.
The vote we did was about which fruit is best. Apple, banana, peach, and orange. We got a piece of paper with four boxes next to the images of the fruit. We labelled each fruit with a number from 1 to 4, 1 being the best and 4 being the worst. In the end of the vote peach and apple tied. After the vote we went to the rose garden to have some morning tea, however we could not explore as it was heavily raining. We had an apple or orange and a muesli bar.
After morning tea, we hopped on the bus and headed to the National Capital Exhibition Centre. On the way there we saw the embassies of which the American one was the biggest, however the countries like Fiji, China and other Asian embassies had huge amounts of their culture there. On the way we saw people protesting outside the American embassy and most of us tried to make them wave. Most did luckily. There was also the Russian embassy of which they have not finished building yet. We also learnt that if you step in an embassy you must abide by heir rules.
When we got to the National Exhibition Centre, we learnt about how they designed the Capital city of Australia. They showed us a replica of Canberra which was cool. Then we had lunch (sandwiches and chips) and went to the gift shop.
Then we left to go to the War memorial where we heard stories of soldiers who severely impacted WWII and the forgotten war between North Korea and South Korea. We were also shown the planes they used in World War II, like the Mustang. We then went to the hall of Fame where they had most of the names of the soldiers who died. We also saw the eternal flame that is always burning. We then went into a huge room where we saw tons of coloured tiles and the grave of the soldier who is the key to remembering all the soldiers who died. Then we went to the gift shop before we left.
We then had a 30 min drive to Questacon. However, we arrived too early so most of us played handball outside. They had a cool stone ball that would spin on its axis outside as well. When we finally got inside, we went to the galleries. One of the galleries had an earthquake simulator which was cool. There was also a target which you threw a handball at and it measured how fast it was. I was proud to get the highest score in the class with 75. There were six galleries we went to and the last one was a huge Mars module, but everyone wanted to go to the shop, so we left there early. After we all finished, we went back to the accommodation and had spaghetti.
Then we left to go to Mount Stromlo Observatory, but it was too foggy, so we didn’t go to the telescopes, instead we went on a tour of the observatory. Then we went back to our accommodation and went straight to bed ( most of us at least ).
Year 6 Camp Canberra
Wednesday - by Sina and Amy
We woke up at 8:00 am and had breakfast at 8:30 am. Then we went to the national film and sound archives. At the national film and sound archives we learned to identify primary and secondary sources, after that we watched a Ned Kelly film with the first visual effect. When it was done, we had morning tea.
Then we went to the royal Australian mint. There we looked at every coin that I ever touched in Australia. It was awesome there! We also saw that there are people making special shiny coins for collection. They are worth a lot more than their original value. There were robots and they all had names and they all had a different purpose. One of them sealed bags, another transported giant barrels of coins and the last one carried these and put them into the hoppers. It was satisfying to watch, although it made an unpleasant noise. There was also a shop and there were some people who got a special coin for 3 dollars. Then after that, we had pizza for lunch. There was so much pizza, so you could have as much as you want and it would never end. It was delicious! Us kids also went to the park that was right there. It had a giant tree and kids started climbing the tree. After that, lots of kids started playing tip on the grass in the park where the tree were. It was fun!
After the mint, we went to the national dinosaur museum. It was really fun and we learnt about the different dinosaur bones and which dinosaur they belong to. We also saw tons of fossils of scorpions, seahorses and wired historic sea animals. There were some copies of very famous skeletons. Our guide showed us how big the megalodon jaw was and explained us how and why they died. Then we all went to the gift shop where there were tons of giant crystals, quartzes, and fool’s gold.
Then we went back to the motel to have dinner. We ate schnitzel, salad and wedges. For dessert, we had ice-cream.
Sina: At 7:00 pm we went to Australian national botanic gardens, there we were split into two groups. My group went to look at a big red bottle-brush tree. Then we went to a little track which reminded me of a rainforest. The guide showed us a tree with some funnel-webs, but they were not Sydney funnel-webs and the guide was poking his fingers in the holes and trying to make it climb on his finger. Then we looked at some cockroaches and saw a few wattle birds and a possum. Wattle birds are these grey birds with a yellow stomach. Then we went back to the motel.
Amy: In the botanic gardens, we went through a garden that should be called a jungle because it was so big. We saw a giant wolf spider. It was looking dead, but it was alive! Then we kept on walking and crashed into a mushroom and the guy said that without mushrooms, trees would barely survive. That instance I heard a rustle in the bush, and I thought it was a bunny or possum. It turned out to be a possum that was white, and it was so cute. After that we kept on walking and then we saw this bird that only comes out at night, it was so camouflaged in the tree, it looked just like it was part of the tree, but it wasn’t. Its eye was looking straight at us after that we walked back to the other group to go back to the motel.
Year 6 Camp Canberra
Thursday by Oliver and Oscar
On Thursday we rode on a bus to the Mount Ainslie Lookout. At the lookout we looked over Canberra. Canberra has a lot of trees and the city was split in half by a river named the Murrumbidgee river. We took a class photo with Canberra in the background. We spent 5 minutes there.
Then we boarded the bus and drove to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.
At the CDSCC we had recess. After we finished having recess, we went inside to the CDSCC to listen to an instructor about NASA’s rovers and the massive dishes nearby. After he finished talking, we got to walk around and see models of satellites and a rover. Then he got us to group up again and showed us how small our star is and what types of galaxies are. The largest star we know of is the UY-SCUTI. After that we walked towards the gift shop and bought toys.
Then we went to the Australian Institute of Sport to eat lunch. After eating lunch, we went to the main building of the AIS where we got to play sport games in an arcade like area. At the arcade like place, we got to play games like skiing, wheelchair racing, basketball, rock climbing, soccer, touching various sport balls before the timer runs out, kayaking, bicycle riding, arm wrestling and skeleton sledding. We had a fun time there. After that, we went to a sports field and played supreme frisbee and “survival tag”.
After that, we boarded the bus and drove back to the accommodation for dinner. We ate potatoes, beef and vegetables for dinner.
Then after eating dinner we went to a room to play board games. The boardgames included chess, checkers, uno and others.
After that we went back to our rooms to sleep.
Year 6 Camp Canberra
Friday - by Isabella and Tahnee
On Friday it was 10°C - 15°C outside.
We had breakfast at 7:00 am. Then at 7:45 am we loaded all our luggage onto our bus. After that at 8:00 am we said goodbye to our accommodation and at 8:30 am we arrived at the CSIRO Discovery Centre. There we met a lady that told us what we were going to do. The lady showed us a picture of nature. We had to write down on either a white-board or paper on what we want to discover in a nature area like the photo, for example insects, bugs, bird noises and even soil. After we wrote down what we were interested in, we got a ton of supplies, for example nets, shovels, plastic containers, tweezers and gloves.
On the bus ride after that, we did lots of things, for example we played Uno, we wrote in our diaries, we tried to sleep and we played with the things that we got from the various gift shops.
