Youth Eco Summit

Towards the beginning of the term we took 150 Year 7 students to the Youth Eco Summit. This is an annual two-day event held on October 22-3, is designed to engage students and teach them about sustainability. Nearly 3,000 students attended the event with over 130 schools represented.

There were approximately 50 stalls including displays on solar cars, bicycle power generation, composting, waste management and a range of other programs and initiatives. A number of Environmental Education Centres, universities and community organisations were present and ran workshops. Some of the workshops our students attended included Sustainability in Agriculture, The Buzz on Bees, Designing Sustainable Homes, Science Behind Textiles, Climate Change Made Easy, We Are All Cooks River People and Energy Past, Present and Future.

Each class of students attended three workshops to learn about sustainability in more detail. All of the sessions had a wide variety of curriculum-based, hands on activities to keep the students engaged. The Designing Sustainable Homes workshop (above) taught students about practical ideas that can be implemented in an average home. Students then used a home design app to design their own sustainable buildings on iPads. Students examined the parts of flowers at the Buzz on Bees workshop, but were most interested in the honey and fruit taste testing at the end of the workshop. The Take 3 workshop taught students about rubbish in our oceans and the potential of simple initiatives to provide a practical solution.

Our students have been able to apply the knowledge gained at the Youth Eco Summit in the preparation of a Sustainability Cross Curriculum Project that has run throughout Term 4. This event is a great way to give students choice in content and activities, but also to extend students by providing them with challenging information from a range of universities and organisations.

In conjunction with the Youth Eco Summit, the Sydney Olympic Park and the Royal Agricultural Society ran a number of professional learning activities. 

Links:
Youth Eco Summit
Youth Eco Summit - showcasing sustainability in action - UWS
Registration is already open for the 2015 Youth Eco Summit