We’re all happy campers
By Ava Bolton and Emily Hewitt, Year 5, St Andrew’s Catholic College
THIS year for camp, Year 5 at St Andrew’s Catholic College went up to the Tinaroo Environmental Education Centre (TEEC).
The camp started very early on Monday morning where we got all of our luggage together to make the huge trip to the Atherton Tablelands.
After a few hours on the bus, we arrived at our camp for the week and were welcomed by some awesome teachers.
During the camp, we did some really fun games and activities such as kayaking, high ropes, low ropes, dam walk and animal hunt.
The best activities by far were kayaking and high ropes. In kayaking, we were in groups of four. We learnt how to kayak in the five minutes we spent on the shore. Our guide showed us how to turn, go backwards and the most important – to go forward.
During the camp, we were encouraged to think about how we can look after our environment and live more sustainably.
We learnt about things that harm our environment and what we can do to help. There is an amazing mural at the Environmental Education Centre that shows you all of the impacts that little things can do for the environment.
We think that lots of people should install solar panels, recycle their waste and ride their bicycles more often.
During the scoop netting activity, we collected animals from the bottom of the dam. We learnt how to tell if a waterway is polluted or not by looking at macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates are the bugs that live in the water.
Some macroinvertebrates showed that Lake Tinaroo is a healthy waterway.
On the second day, we learnt about Tinaroo Dam and where the spillway was. We also went across the dam wall, and our guide told us about the village that once lived in the dam before it was built.
Our TEEC teacher told us that even though there are rumours the dam was not built over the village, the people who built it moved all the buildings before starting work.
Most importantly, during the camp, we learnt about friendship, compassion, bravery, organisation and getting along. We got to work in teams to solve problems, encourage each other and to never give up on tough tasks. Another thing we learnt was that it can be freezing at Tinaroo. It got to 8 degrees while we were there.
The most important lesson that one student discovered was that you should pack your pillow for camp.
Everyone enjoyed the camp thoroughly, including the teachers that helped us through tough games that we did. We are all looking forward to using the new skills we have acquired while at TEEC (like packing your pillow). Thanks to all the teachers for organising such a great camp.