Room 8 compiled this recount after they had an expert visit their class as part of their inquiry.
On Tuesday the 19th of August 2015 Drew visited Room 8. He is an Environmental Scientist. We listened to Drew while he told us lots of information. Such as:
• Native seeds have a seed case that protects them. (Cody)
• Seeds can be dormant/asleep for a long time. (Oliver) Karri seeds can stay dormant for 90 years. (Oliver and Dusty)
• The Karri tree is the second tallest tree in the world. The seed is tiny-only as big as a hundreds and thousands sprinkle! (Tahli and Sasha)
• The tallest tree in the world lives in America and is called the Redwood. (Koa)
• Seeds wake up when there is heat or rain or fire and especially smoke.(Matisse, Flynn and Dusty)
• It is not good to feed native animals in the bush. It’s ok to leave water in our garden for native animals like birds, especially in Summer. (Samuel)
• Seeds need sunlight, warmth, water and fire.
• Seeds know when to germinate when the conditions are perfect.
• Seeds are important because they keep the life cycle going. (Deegan and Cole)
• Native animals can accidently hurt people if we try to feed them. (Ryan)
• Native means they are used to living in our conditions in Margaret River. (Isla)
• Aboriginal people are experts at knowing which seeds to eat in our environment. That is because Aboriginal people were the first people to live in Australia and Aboriginal culture is the longest living culture in the world. (Dusty)
• There are poisonous seed and plants in our area and the poisonous pea seeds can kill a small child if eaten. It’s very important that we don’t eat bush food unless we have an expert. (Caspian)
• To germinate native seeds people use smoke water to unlock the seed case.
We smelt the smoke water and it smelt like a campfire. We went outside in 5 groups and counted out native seeds into glass jars. Dani poured smoke water over the seeds. We are going to soak them for 12 hours and then plant them tomorrow in soil (Joe). Drew gave us these 5 types of seeds;
1. Peaflower
2. Sailboat Wattle
3. Grevillea
4. Prickly Moses
5. Winged Wattle
Written and photos by Clare Dallimore; Posted by D. Veary
Canteen