Pre-visit Activities

Spark a discussion amongst your class:

How has our environment changed?

What did your school surroundings and community look like years ago? As a whole class, or in groups, encourage students to investigate how your local area has changed. Do some serious detective work and fact finding using these different sources:

  • Talk to parents, neighbours, elderly citizens
  • Collect and peruse old newspapers and photos
  • Collect some old maps (e.g. Melways - from recent to as far back as possible; old geological maps - were there any volcanoes in your suburb?)
  • Compare ‘green' areas over the years - what has been replacing the green areas?
  • Study the development of freeways over time. You can compare this with our ‘green grassy freeway' - the habitat corridor being created by Grassy Gurus schools
  • Approach local councils for aerial photographs and population, housing and industry statistics
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Check out the Teacher notes for further inspiration on other pre- and post-visit activities you can do!