NSW Environmental Education Centres

Natural learning

Illawarra Environmental Education Centre

Illawarra EEC

Our centre is part of the NSW Department of Education’s Environmental Education Centres network. Illawarra EEC leads environmental education by modelling exemplary teaching for students and fostering innovative partnerships with teachers across our school community. We aim for students to understand human impacts on the environment and develop a deep connection with the natural world that inspires lifelong custodianship.

Our environments

Our centre is based in Killalea Regional Park, Shell Cove, which is north of Kiama on the Illawarra coastline. Our diverse coastal environments accross the Illawarra and Shoalhaven feature beaches, forests, mangrove estuaries, littoral and subtropical rainforests, freshwater lagoons and wetlands. The area holds rich Aboriginal and European heritage, reflecting its long history of cultural and environmental significance.

Working with schools

We work with all NSW public schools. Schools can book our centre for our co-curricular learning programs and teacher professional development. We also support teachers with teaching resources, assessments and pre and post excursion learning activites to extend learning beyond the excursion.

Learning programs

We run hands-on excursions for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. Our programs are designed to be an integral part of the student's learning and can be tailored to meet the students' needs.

Many of our programs incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives to deepen students’ understanding of caring for the environnment.

Illawarra EEC is on Dharawal Country.

Visit Illawarra EEC website.

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Energy and forces

Science and Technology

Stage 3 - Physical world

This program focuses upon the difference between contact and non-contact forces and how energy may be transformed from one form to another. Students will have the opportunity to investigate how electrical circuits can be used to control movement, sound and light within systems and circuits. This program will test a student’s ability to design, test and evaluate an electrical system which demonstrates energy transformations, developing their understanding of the relationship between force and energy.

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Investigating science

The future of Kiama's rocky intertidal ecosystem

After researching rock platform organisms in relation to their adaptations and interspecies interactions, students conduct a rock platform investigation in which they use observations and inferences to develop an hypothesis and carry out a field test.  

After processing and analysing both primary and secondary data and information, students design an ongoing rock platform investigation that addresses an aspect of  the depth study inquiry question - How will ocean temperature, water level and acidity rises change the rocky intertidal ecosystem?

Groups then present their investigation methodology to the class (suggested depth study assessment).

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Learning resources

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NSW Environmental Education Centres

We would like to pay our respects and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and also pay respect to Elders both past and present.

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