08 May 2017
On Friday 28th April 2017, a group of six Year 10 students, Ave LP, Jacob W, Takesa F, Jonah S, Ethan S and Peta S, made the journey to Mogo Zoo to participate in the GoMAD Sustainability Day.
The day included a range of activities including workshops, a ‘sustainable lunch' challenge, and feeding animals.
The first hour was spent in the Mogo Zoo ‘Educational Centre', where the students were introduced to Zoo Keepers and Environmental Teachers, before learning about their lives in their chosen career. Many Zoo Keepers had teaching, zoology or science degrees, and did a range of things before settling into their zoo-keeping careers. Some had amazing experiences, such as going overseas to look after orangutans or going to Nepal to rebuild the communities there.
There were two workshops. The first workshop was about the opportunity to go to Nepal to build classrooms and to do volunteer work. A girl participated in a program that involved going to Nepal during her schoolies week, and came back bursting with excitement over the experiences she had. The students were asked to write up two forms of bucket lists: your bucket list, and if the Earth could have one, the Earth's. This was to ensure that our wants and needs were put into perspective in comparison to the Earth's, so we could take the planet's needs into consideration.
The second workshop involved being introduced to a guy called Ben, who worked for the Illawarra Environmental Education Centre. He told the participants about his lifestyle; trying to reduce as much waste as possible. They were then challenged to come up with a list of things he did that weren't environmentally sustainable – which proved difficult. Everything including his clothes, sewerage, food, electricity, and even his house involved recycled/sustainable materials. However, he was caught on his transport, shoes, and GoMAD presentation.
Lunch followed before all students were given the opportunity to feed the giraffes. After a few quick photos in front of the lions, the day ended with the slogan, ‘go make a difference!'
