Burdekin Christian College

Burdekin Christian College continued to receive awards in 2010 for activities of its Enviro Club.

The College won the Community Connection Award from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The College won the carbon diet competition conducted by the Burdekin Shire Council.

The Enviro Club continues to operate in 2011. Its activities arise from the College's sustainability policy.

Students have been organised into seven teams. Each team has a leader. The leader and members of the team organise activities for the year. The team and activities for the year are found below.

The organic gardens are producing vegetables. See pictures below of a no-dig garden and a vegetable garden.

On Thursday 28 July the College had a free dress fund raising day. We had a choice of notes or coins. Our goal was to raise $200.00 fro a cot for Robyn and Terry Collins who are missionaries in Thailand. The College raised over $191.10. We had a second day of fund raising but no free dress. We raised $6.00 more and the P&F topped it up to $300.00 for blankets.

Prep and year one had to design an energy super hero and give it a name and its power. Years 2 and 3 had to design a light switch poster. Years 4 and 5 had to make a pin wheel or wind turbine. Years 6 and 7 had to record who rode to school in their class and talk to people about solar energy and other power saving ideas.

Year six and seven are having fourteen lessons on organic gardening. Lesson 10 is on garden friends and enemies. Students have been taking photos of garden friends and enemies in the College�s organic herb and

vegetable gardens. They have taken photos of worms and other creatures in the soil and lady bugs. Caterpillars have also been found eating flower plants by the gardener but these have not been identified.

Years 4 and 5 students planted 40 trees indigenous to the Burdekin on School Tree Planting Day on 29 July. They were planted at Plantation Park. The trees were donated by the Lower Burdekin Land Care Group. Students placed fertilizer in the holes, planted the trees, filled the hole with soil, watered the trees and placed mulch around the trees.

As well some years 6 and 7 students planted 8 bottle trees in the College�s dry rain forest. The College has planted bottle trees for the last number of years. The number of nectar eating bids has increased.

Each year the College puts up new signs in regard to its sustainability activities. These are put up both inside and outside the classroom. These signs replace the signs from previous years and there are also new signs. Some signs include drinking lots of water, keeping areas free of litter and clean, recyclable bins, food scrap bins and non-recyclable bins.

The College is part of the Burdekin District Enviro Council. The Council�s members come from various schools in the Burdekin. Its next activity is participating in the Future Leaders Eco Challenge (FLEC) organised by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on 31 August. Watch this space for updated information.

Members of the Enviro Club will be attending the Junior Land Care Conference being held in Ayr on the 21^st and 22^nd of September. Watch this space for updated information.

The 6 and 7 students have been working through a gardening program produced by BFA (Biological Farmers. The school's aim is to complete the program by the required due date of October 31^st so that we will then receive a grant of gardening goods including organic fertilizer, worms, compost bins, weed mats etc to the value of $1000. The Burdekin Christian College is one of only 8 schools in Australia taking part in the program and the only Queensland school.

The class has been working through a series of 12 prepared lessons which we have almost completed. The lessons began with an experiment in which seeds were placed on wet cotton wool and placed in a dark cupboard. We then saw how seeds began to grow. We put seeds in plastic bottles so we could see the development of the root system.

W e learnt how to make compost and looked at worm farms.

We g rew seedlings and planted them out. The lessons also included the need for protective clothing, the importance of watering, weeding and protecting p lants from wind and heat. We measured the soil pH, discovered that insects can be good for the garden as well as pests and how to organically control them and how to collect seeds from beans so that we can grow more.

Along the way we have been lucky enough to

spend some time in the garden with Bronson, our gardener, each week. With him we have planted seedlings, small trees and vegetables. We have picked, and eaten, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers. We have pruned trees and fertilized the garden. We have had a wonderful time and have learnt to enjoy the garden as well as how plants grow.