Exciting Electives in Year 8

Exciting Electives

in Year 8

Students in Year 8 are encouraged to challenge themselves and follow their passions. As well as their self-directed independent learning project in the Cre8 program, students choose two electives to complete during the year. We look at some of the 10 electives on offer in Semester 1.

The Great Outdoors, with Emma Witham

Does household recycling actually end up at a tip? What are major supermarkets and commercial food companies doing to support sustainable food practices? How is global warming affecting the Great Barrier Reef? What is “Fight for the Bight”? How have animals come to be endangered and extinct? What environmental issues am I interested in learning about? These are questions students have pondered in The Great Outdoors.

During this environmental education unit, students explore the uses and impacts humans have had on the environment over time. Key focus areas in this elective are daily sustainable practices, impacts of climate change and issues present in the media affecting our natural landscape. In Term 1, students travelled down the Great Ocean Road, walking from Point Addis to Anglesea and surfing Urquhart’s Bluff. Not only did it provide them with a chance to appreciate one of Australia’s most beautiful coastlines, but to also have fun and immerse themselves into the special landscape we have in our backyard.

In Term 2, students learnt basic camping skills such as setting up, cooking, navigation, extended journey-planning and minimal impact practices; a great support for their Year 8 camp in Term 4.

Students in The Great Outdoors elective immersed themselves into the beautiful landscape at Urquhart’s Bluff. Lachie Chomley (OGC 2013) shows Emma Carroll and the Paddock to Platter students around The Farm Next Door in Norlane.

Paddock to Platter, with Stephanie Lawrence

The Year 8s are cooking. Cinnamon, cardamom and apple aromas drift from the Enviro Kitchen as hot cross buns, with a layer of stewed Enviro apples, bloom in the oven.

For the past few years, students in the Paddock to Platter elective have learnt cooking skills and tended to their kitchen garden. A new direction opened in 2019, as we became aware of Lachie Chomley’s (OGC 2013) commitment to sustainability and his new venture in Norlane. The Paddock to Platter students ventured to Lachie’s home and site of The Farm Next Door, a community project that aims to grow affordable, fresh produce for Norlane and Corio locals. Students planted spinach and kohlrabi seeds while hearing about Lachie’s vision of “a connected community that provides a majority of its needs for itself”. In response to significant social and environmental issues, Lachie suggested “there is nothing more empowering than changing your household behaviour to affect positive change”.

Lachie’s philosophy sits well with the heart of Paddock to Platter. There is such joy and satisfaction in cooking with what you have and what you can grow.

Students take turns piping crosses before baking their hot cross buns in the Enviro Kitchen.

Filmmakers Takoda Ritchie and Agnes Ambrose have loved filming their documentary and interviewing staff around the school.

Real Fiction, with Rhonda Browne

Real Fiction allows students to delve into the world of the mysterious. They investigate whether the unexplained is real or fictitious, and can present these as documentaries, podcasts or another multi-media form. The students listen to and analyse podcasts and documentaries before making their own.

Mrs Browne said she loved the elective because “students can really choose what they want to do”. The freedom to research and create anything is a real plus for the 10 students, as an elective like this demands time to make mistakes, overcome challenges and do things that might not work. A typical class might see some students leave and film, others sit on a couch and research, or just look around for inspiration. “I like Real Fiction as I enjoy looking up scary stuff and researching about it,” Georgia Phung said while working on a mermaid documentary.

Agnes Ambrose and Takoda Ritchie said they enjoyed the opportunity to create in an unfamiliar medium. Takoda was pleased to be able to apply her costume make-up skills in the class.

The group went to ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in March and learnt more about filmmaking and the history of films, games, animation and television. “It was a fun way to learn how to make a movie,” Harry Carroll, who is making a podcast on hauntings, said. “The presentation was informative and lots of fun!”

- Written with Agnes Ambrose

Harry Carroll made up for his film role in Takoda and Agnes’ documentary. Hannah Phung and Hollie Bohun are engrossed in writing and editing their masterpieces in the Write On elective.

Write On, with Michael Panckridge

The students taking on the Write On elective get the chance to plan, write, edit and promote a narrative story. While six months sounds like plenty of time, they quickly realised the journey was more challenging than they first thought. They shared their ideas and delved into the writing process. While some students are fully immersed in the writing component, others are keeping up with the editing and even planning the look of their book cover, spine and rear cover.

While the publication of a “real” book is appealing, some are pondering an electronic or online version instead. There’s a wonderful range of genres: action and adventure, dystopian themes, some intriguing what-if scenarios and stories with sport as a central focus. The idea of the journey is also prevalent in many of the tales. Hollie Bohun said she loved the Write On elective because it put the students in control. “Mine’s a fantasy-based story; it’s about a girl and her dragon.”

Hannah Phung has also been enjoying the creative elective. “It’s just really exciting, it’s like nothing I’ve really done before,” she said. “Mine’s a refugee story. It’s about this boy and his family, and they have to leave Vietnam because of the war.”

Students work on their novels in the peaceful sanctuary of the Middle School library.