For our Inquiry lesson this week Year 5/6 students investigated the use of our waterways in Australia.  We started with a clean jug of water and followed a Story of a River. At each part of the 'story' a new material found its way into our fresh water and changed it. Students were shocked to see the impact of agriculture, erosion, urbanisation, construction and recreational activities. 

At each stage students were asked is this fair and would you drink it? Then they wrote a reflection about the treatment of Australia's waterways. You can read two of our student's reflections below.

I believe that Australia has neglected their delicate water ways. We have let agriculture, erosion and urbanisation take over our waterways. Our water is clean to begin with, however by the end we have brown, dirty, unsanitary and murky water. We think about the poor aquatic creatures who have to call that home, but the creatures have no choice because its us who are causing the problem. We’re letting rubbish get to the water, were using toxic products that are headed directly to the ocean. If we want our waterways to remain safe for future generations we need to use safer chemicals that are safe for the water and environment, we need to dispose of materials properly. Currently our waterways are becoming polluted and its our job to stop this so we can protect mother natures precious seas before its too late, remember we only get one ocean. The indigenous worked very hard to make sure the water would be healthy but how long did we let that last? by Emma

People in Australia need to take better care of our waterways.. We use it as a place to dump rubbish. We don’t take care of our fresh water. We need to put our rubbish in the bin not let the wind carry it to a waterway. We need to improve how we use plastic and other rubbish and we need to use more natural things instead of plastic and rubbish that will destroy our precious waterways. The water ways need to be kept safe and protected from rubbish and things that will poison our wonderful waterways. Our First Nations People could take care of it for thousands of years and they didn’t run out of fresh water so we can keep the waterways as clean as they did if we take care of the waterways more. At the moment they are poisoned but we can fix that. By Georgia