Martin Pluss

Hi all,

This year I have had the opportunity to go on a number of field trips. In the past I did this a lot as I was mainly a Geography teacher, though more recently I have been a bit school bound with the different ICT duties. I have been to Camp Kedron on the edge of Ku-ring-gai National Park, Dee Why and Collaroy Beach, Norton Street Auburn Mosque, Penrith Lakes/Warragamba Dam and Eastwood for a community study.

Recently I was on a Year 9 Fieldtrip to Eastwood. The focus was on the changing community. We started the day off listening to a residential real estate agent from Ray White Eastwood speaking about the changes in housing in the area and finished the day listening to a commercial agent now retired from the area.

All this was quite interesting. However, I found myself looking at other things and took a few photos. Eastwood is prone to severe flooding and a lot has been done to try and fix things but the suburb has three local councils Ryde, Parramatta and Hornsby so you can imagine how difficult it would be to get any sort of cohesive plan operational. While looking at the changes in housing I was looking at where the water went. I took three pictures of the same waterway at different points of Eastwood.

There is so much to see and learn if you can get out. How do we get children to investigate things around them without taking them on a field trip? Now and then I see my own children @11g and @15b being curious and looking at things in the world but they don’t see the themes, overarching concepts and patterns – let alone the historical dimension of the changes even in a few years.

Explore the Natural Geographer in you.

cheers Martin

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