25 Nov 2020
Sustainable Schools Grant
2020 has been a big year for Year 7 learning about Sustainable Living in the local area.
Dungog High School applied for the Sustainable Schools Grant and was delighted to find our application was successful. This grant afforded students many opportunities to engage in some educationally insightful, practical and fun hands-on learning experiences.
We have learnt about small changes that individuals can make in their own lives to achieve a big impact within our community, improving the environment and caring for our planet.
Students looked at sustainable housing, the various types of housing in our local area, environmentally friendly strategies already applied to the town and possible future needs the area will have in order to future-proof our environment against the ever- changing threats we encounter.
Some of the learning activities students participated in included designing their own environmentally friendly house (using tools such as SketchUp, Floor Planner and Minecraft Education), then built a model to demonstrate the sustainable features their houses would include (using Lego and other mixed materials).
Some of the learning activities students participated in included designing their own environmentally friendly house (using tools such as SketchUp, Floor Planner and Minecraft Education), then built a model to demonstrate the sustainable features their houses would include (using Lego and other mixed materials).
Beeswax Wraps and Boomerang Bags
Year 7 students also participated in Sustainability Days, where they made their own beeswax wraps and reusable shopping bags (linked to our studies related to the importance of bees and why the bee population is dwindling and the effects on humans and our local area, and Dungog Boomerang Bags and reusing resources as an alternative to plastic waste). Tocal Agricultural College generously donated a large amount of beeswax to our school to enable this project to take place. We also sourced second-hand sheets and quilt covers from the local op-shops (which were washed and sanitized) from which to make these products. The Sustainable Schools Grant was instrumental in allowing us to acquire various resources for these days and employing the expertise of community members to make these days a successful learning experience for all students.