On Monday 20th October all Year 7 students went on an Ecosystems Excursion to the specific destination that they nominated to attend. Students went to either the Ballarat Wildlife Park or Queenscliff. If they went to Queenscliff they then participate in a marine experience on the bay or went to explore the beach, rock pools or fresh water environment. While on their excursion the studied the ecosystem that Australian animals or creatures live in and participated in discussions about food chains and food webs.

‘The environment at Rocky Shores showed Ruby, and I how there were sharks in the water because there were shark eggs. The worker showed us the different types of shark eggs. Their teeth and jaws were so big. The worker showed us starfish. The worker also showed us how pufferfish eat shells and break it in their mouth and spits out the shell and only eat the meat inside. They showed us the seaweed and different types of coral. After that we went to the touch pool. The touch pool is and small pool with fish that were not poisonous. You could touch them.’ – Alice O’C 7B and Ruby C 7B 

‘While walking though the Wildlife Park Zoo in Ballarat, we saw lots of animals. We liked looking around for all the wallabies and kangaroos. We got to hug them and give them pats. We got to see a big crocodile named Crunch. There was also a small one named Baller. The big crocodile was 5 metres long. We looked at the reptiles and the aligator We went outside and saw the other animals. As it was not good weather, most of the animals were inside their cages and not coming out. We got to pat the lama and the emu. Our favourite animals were the tigers and all the kangaroos.’ – Briah C 7G and Lily B 7B

‘Being at the Rocky Shores made me think about how water is so fun. I observed the sea and the rocks. We found a shark egg. It was so cool. WE SAW FISH!   I think that we sword wear flipflops.’ – Ella W 7B

‘During our visit to the Marine Centre, we saw a lot of fish. One tried to eat me and kept scaring me. I also got to see swamp animals, and it was so much fun (Maya). We learned about feeding fish and got to touch some shark eggs and a bone of a fish. It helped us understand more about fish (Mila).’ – Mila K 7B and Maya T7G

‘During our visit to the beach comb, we noticed the sand, ocean, the light house, seaweed, rocks, spiders, shark eggs, fish, boats, fisherman, dolphin, people that were looking for seashells, a crab shells, seashells, sea horses, star fishes, pufferfish and zebra fish. From this experience, we learned that there were different type of fish and sea horses, and that the male sea horse carries the babies.’ – Willow M 7G and Georgia K 7B

‘At the Marine Centre we saw so many different sea creatures, like lobsters blow fish and catfish. It was so fascinating to see and learn about all the different sea creatures. Some of the students were lucky enough to go on a boat and look at the small shrimp, oysters, fish and crabs. We learned about the importance of seaweed. We also got to see some larger animals like dolphins and seals.’ – Juliet K 7B and Lily S 7B

‘Exploring Ballarat Wildlife Park helped us understand that there’s different habitats and where they came from and how they adapted to their new area. We observed the animals such as crocodiles, snakes, turtles, kangaroos, dingoes and a whole lot more. The Wildlife Park had heaps of different animals to explore, and we also got to experience a kangaroo fight.’ – Amarlie R 7G and Maddie P 7B