Niddrie Primary School

Summary of program

Our water and environment unit covered the water cycle, its components and how it works. Students made posters on the water cycle and conducted several experiments about the principles of the water cycle. We took advantage of the water incursion on terrariums from City West Water and participated in an excursion to the Western Treatment Plant where students were able to follow the journey of water.

We intensively discussed GaBaToiLaKi (from the first edition of the Water – Learn it! Live it! resource), a topic that included details of where water is used in the home, i.e. garden, bathroom, toilet, laundry and kitchen. Students then conducted water audits at home and at school to identify where the most water is used in their daily activities. Following on from this, a large component of the unit was focused on water conservation. We looked at how to save water at home and at school.

To share our water saving messages, students wrote a water saving song and performed it to the community. In addition they made claymation animations that included water messages derived from their previous learning.

The school community embraced the water saving messages and, through a government grant, we were able to transform our school into a water-efficient environment – by installing four water tanks to flush the school’s toilets, replacing old cisterns with dual flushing cisterns, installing spring-loaded drinking taps and putting buckets under drinking taps to further save water and help water the school garden.

 

Outcomes of program

Students at Niddrie Primary School, and the wider community, now have a better understanding of the importance of water conservation. We began celebrating an annual water day, at which the school developed a water-saving pledge that students and the community promised to implement. Every family received a copy of the pledge to display at home, as well as a shower timer to help them take shorter showers to save water. We heard from expert speakers on water issues and had water tanks on display for parents to look at. The water song was shared with the school and visitors, our water-saving claymation animations were shown to all members of our school and students participated in water-saving activities in their classrooms. The school is now looking at other water-saving innovations to decrease water consumption and increase water conservation.

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