Edstream : Edstream Edition 12
Edstream Edition 12
EdStream
Edition 12, December 2007
We wish all Edstream readers the warmest of greetings for the festive season. Stay tuned in 2008 for news updates, new curriculum resources and funding opportunities.
In this edition:
- Watercare Grants Awarded
- Water - Learn it! Live it! Cluster Wins Water Smart Award
- Young Artists Painting the Australian landscape
- Student Worksheet: Catchments and Fire
Watercare Grants Awarded
Caring for our rivers and creeks
Thirty-one schools (PDF, 116kb) in Melbourne will share in more than $55,000 in grants for projects to help protect and improve local rivers and creeks.
For the fifth year running, grants of up to $2000 per school project were made available through the Melbourne Water Young Watercare Grants program, a partnership between Melbourne Water and Landcare Australia.
Since the program's inception, 150 schools from across the Port Phillip and Westernport region have received nearly $250,000 in grants for a range of stormwater and river health projects, water quality monitoring and whole school community education programs.
Melbourne Water Managing Director Rob Skinner congratulated schools on the success of their applications.
"This program is a great way to encourage school students to value their local waterways and help protect the environment."
Every year, Melbourne Water commits more than $30 million in projects to protect our rivers and creeks including education and community programs.
Download: 2007 Successful School Projects (PDF, 116kb)
Water - Learn it! Live it! Cluster Wins Water Smart School Award
Students from the Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster Williamstown with Water - Learn it! Live it! Program Manager, Mr Nick Abroms (far left) and the Parliamentary Secretary for Water and Environment, Mr Michael Crutchfield (far right).
Congratulations to the Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster Williamstown, who won the 2007 Water Smart School of the Year Award.
Awarded by Sustainability Victoria, as part of the ResourceSmart School of the Year Awards, the Water Smart School of the Year Award category recognises achievements in water conservation.
Students from the four Water - Learn it! Live it! schools making up the Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster Williamstown - Williamstown Primary School, Spotswood Primary School, Williamstown North Primary School and Williamstown High School - worked together to organise Splish! Splash! - a student H2O forum.
The students also created Water Promises, an interactive National Water Week display for Melbourne and Scienceworks Museum. This has led to the cluster forming a partnership with Melbourne Museum to educate the broader community about the importance of being Water Smart.
Water - Learn it! Live it! Program Manager, Nick Abroms said, "With increasing population and climate change, it is important for the next generation to start their lives with sustainable water habits. The Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster has gone above and beyond this through a range of different water saving initiatives."
The cluster has won in a year where a record 84 entries from 50 schools across Victoria were entered in the Awards.
The four schools share in $25,000 in prizes to assist with their ongoing sustainability projects.
Other finalists in the Water Smart category, sponsored by the Water - Learn it! Live it! program were Hill Crest Christian College, Bentleigh West Primary School and Croydon Hills Primary School.
More information:
Water - Learn it! Live it!
Young Artists Painting the Australian Landscape
Artwork by Samantha Davis, Yarra Glen Primary School
Artwork by students from 22 primary schools will feature in Melbourne Water's 2008 calendars. Every year, Melbourne Water works with local primary schools around our major assets to produce a series of calendars. This year, students worked to create artwork that best depicted the theme of "Our land of drought and flooding rains".
Stella Cook, from Thomas Chirnside Primary School, took inspiration from the Wandjina spirits from the Kimberley region of Western Australian.
"My piece of artwork represents the droughts in Australia and the Wandjina spirits bringing the rain to return life to all living things."
At Panton Hill Primary School, Ella Mackenzie's thoughts turned to the animals' plight during a drought.
"In a drought, the food for animals stops growing. Sometimes the ground even cracks because it's so dry."
Melbourne Water Managing Director, Rob Skinner, congratulated the students on the interesting and diverse artwork they submitted.
"As in the past, we have received some fantastic artwork from local students this year and we were delighted with the hard work that the students had put into their contributions."
For secondary schools near our major assets, Melbourne Water once again provided $6,000 in Environmental Champion Awards grants to recognise the commitment of secondary students to environmental sustainability.
For a free copy of the calendars, contact our Inquiry Centre on 13 17 22 or online.
Catchments and Fire
On the lookout for fires in the catchment
Most of Melbourne's water catchments are found in areas comprising national parks and uninhabited land in the Yarra Ranges, where more than 157,000 hectares of pristine forests have been reserved for the primary purpose of harvesting water. When extreme weather occurs, especially during the summer, bushfires can break out in these forested catchments.
Bushfires can have both positive and negative effects. Many forest species require bushfire conditions to propagate and regenerate.
But the affect on water supply can be adverse. The amount of water produced in a catchment will decrease immediately after a fire as trees use a lot of the water to germinate and grow. Water quality is also affected with increased runoff resulting in erosion and ash and debris entering water.
It is therefore important to manage these catchment areas so that bushfire impact on our water supplies can be minimised.
Melbourne Water has a permanent team of 32 fire fighters, boosted by 50 summer firefighters to protect the catchments. In emergencies, they are backed by firefighters from partner agencies, including DSE, Parks Victoria, VicForests and the CFA.
We maintain a fleet of bulldozers and tankers, and have leased a 1300 litre water bombing helicopter, which this season will be kept on standby at Olinda.
Investigate this topic with your students with a worksheet - Catchments and Fire (PDF, 255kb).
Download: Student Worksheet: Catchments and Fire (PDF, 255kb)
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