Wooglemai Environmental Education Centre

Wooglemai EEC

Wooglemai Environmental Education Centre is located on the eastern edge of Nattai National Park which is a part of the World Heritage Listed Greater Blue Mountains National Park. Wooglemai is located on Sheehys Creek Road (just off Barkers Lodge Road), approximately 7 kilometres south of the township of Oakdale.

The centre is a NSW Department of Education Public School and one of 24 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres in NSW. It is the only residential Environmental Education Centre in the South West Sydney Region.

The site is owned by Guntawang Catholic Youth Centres Inc and is leased by the NSW Department of Education.

The traditional custodians of this site and surrounding areas were the Gundungurra and the Dharawal people. The centre takes its name from a Gundungurra man, Wooglemai, who appears in the 1802 diaries of the explorer Francis Barrallier.

Visit Wooglemai EEC website.

Maps end here

K-6

Spring into sustainability

Science

Stage 3

Students will explore the local natural area and look at the sustainable lifestyle and practices of the traditional Aboriginal custodians. They will explore the effects of our increasing population and our consumer based lifestyle on the health of the planet. Students will be challenged to look at their own lifestyle and consider it's impact on our planet. They will engage in hands on activities like cooking using solar ovens and generating electricity using a wind turbine of their own design.

A wholistic unit designed to make us all improve our lifestyle!!

Program details

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7-12

A local ecosystem study (2 day)

Biology

Stage 6

DAY 1

Students perform an in-depth investigation into the nature of ecosystems by performing the mandatory fieldwork component of their syllabus. Students learn about sampling methods and perform both a quadrat and transect study. During these scientific studies students will learn to use a range of scientific equipment to measure, observe, identify and report on biotic and abiotic factors that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms within the environment.

Students will also estimate the size of a plant population and use Elliot traps to actively undertake capture-recapture study methodology.

DAY 2

Students check set traps to determine the diversity of small local mammal species (generally we capture Antechinus, Rattus and Sugar Gliders). We will take a close look at these animals and discuss some of the adaptations they have to survive in the unique environment before releasing them back into the bush.

Students identify and study examples of allelopathy, parasitism, mutualism and commensalism within an ecosystem and the role of organisms in each type of relationship. Students also identify some adaptations of living things by performing a case study of one local animal and plant species. There will also be opportunity to identify human impacts within the ecosystem.