By CASEY NEILL
SILVERTON Primary School made a splash at a water conference last week.
The Noble Park North students made a video called The Jobless Scarecrow for the Melbourne Water Kids Teaching Kids Conference, held at Etihad Stadium on 31 July and 1 August.
They presented it to 450 Water Warriors – fellow participants from across Victoria.
It’s set on a 50-year-old farm where a salinity problem has developed over the past five years.
The farm’s scarecrow watches as the crops fail to grow, then enlists a crow to go out in search of the information required to save the farm.
Melbourne Water is sponsoring the conference for the seventh year, to help kids learn about the urban water cycle.
Acting managing director Paul Pretto said the students had worked through real-world problems to come up with creative and innovative presentations.
“Through this process, I’m confident they have learned about how we can preserve the environment through our everyday actions and they will carry these important lessons throughout their lives, and back to their families and friends,” he said.
Kids Teaching Kids founder Arron Wood said the conference helped young people learn about and care for their local creeks, waterways and bays.
“Confucius said centuries ago ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand,’” he said.
“Kids Teaching Kids extends this adage. Research shows that by teaching others, kids retain about 90 per cent of their lessons.”
