College staff get immersed in nature at NGT Nursery

On Friday the 6th of September 18 teachers and student services officers (SSO) from Tenison Woods College, a secondary school in Mt Gambier, came to visit the NGT community nursery. They were having a well earned Staff Immersion Day, themed around nature and indigenous knowledge, a ‘reflection day’ for staff.

Bryan started with a brief background on NGT, and explained how and why the nursery was established back in 2013. Angela then took everyone outside to look at the plants, stopping to talk about the rare and threatened species we grow, and highlighting the role some of those plants play in the life cycle of native animals, especially insects and birds.

Back in the shed we had a variety of seeds on display for everyone to touch and feel, and a selection of seeds with name tags for a seed match-up activity. Some of the teachers began to get their phones out to help ID the seeds, but no technology was allowed in this game! The microscope was set up for a closer look. Everyone loves seeds through the microscope; it’s a whole new world at 4x magnification!

After the activity, Bryan talked about ants herding caterpillars and showed some very cool virtual reality technology from the “Herding caterpillars” Festival (you can watch the 5 minute video from the Festival here). We also had a ‘bird nesting box’ activity, which was an exercise in identifying a bird from a photograph and matching it to its nest. The diversity of nest materials, nest shapes and designs is one of the wonders of the bird world, and we enjoyed seeing all the amazing nests.

We then looked at some recently collected Melaleuca branches, with the smallest seeds falling out of the newly opened grey capsules. This seed is like dust; it is tiny and reddish brown. The group then did some pricking out of Baloskion tetraphyllum (Tassle Cord-rush) seedlings. This is a wetland species that we had collected from Mt Burr Swamp restoration reserve. This plant grows around the edges of deep wetlands and we hope to establish this plant around parts of Mt Burr Swamp over the coming years.

We had a great time sharing some nature knowledge with the staff. We hope they enjoyed themselves, and got something out of it that they can share with their students in the future. If your workplace or school are interested in doing a professional development day with us, please get in touch by emailing Jess.