School Sustainability Festival

On September 9th, students across Melbourne and a school in the Northern Territory were invited to attend Port Phillip's virtual School Sustainability Festival. We were fortunate enough to have taken part in this eye-opening event with primary, secondary, and home-schooled students and staff, which consisted of many student-led workshops, including topics about native Australian plants, seeing wildlife from “The Reptile Encounter”, and learning about the environmental issues around us.

During the festival, Mac.Rob’s Environment Committee was very lucky to be given the opportunity to present our own presentation and workshop. We decided to focus on the more global-scale issue, Ocean Acidification. Our presentation explained its detrimental effects, in which we demonstrated through an easy-at-home experiment with oyster shells and vinegar acid, where the acid eroded the oyster shells, mimicking the erosion of seashells too. And most importantly, we provided possible solutions to how we can tackle this issue and improve the environment.

The School Sustainability Festival also offered several other workshops. All the students had the opportunity to learn more about captivating sustainability topics. The workshop about taking an underwater dive into Port Melbourne's deep waters intrigued passionate biology students.

The concluding workshop allowed us to witness a lovely choir performance from a 5-star-sustainability primary school. The host also provided students the opportunity to ask any last-minute questions and to take part in an interactive activity that inspired young minds to keep thinking sustainably.

Considering the wide range of topics encountered in the festival, students are bound to discover a topic of interest. This year, despite being online, we thoroughly enjoyed the Festival, as the workshops were informative whilst very entertaining! The festival ensured students remained involved via Q&A sections of the workshop. 

Amelia and Kasey, Environment Committee