TAFE support for Earth & Environmental Science course
Already boasting widespread industry support, teachers of the new Earth & Environmental Science course have access to additional professional development support via Mining and Geoscience staff at the Leederville campus of Central TAFE.
Central TAFE’s Mining and Geoscience faculty generously offered Earth & Environmental Science teachers an opportunity to participate in a recent field trip.
TAFE mining and science lecturer, Dale Longman, said the idea evolved after discussions with Curriculum Council’s Earth & Environmental Science course project officer, Bernie Hunneybun.
&“As a result of those discussions, EES teachers were invited to participate in professional development during a TAFE field trip to Mountain Quarry in Boya in late September,” Mr Longman said.
“The field trip included examination of rocks in seven places in the quarry. It is a field trip designed for TAFE students who are interested in careers as a geo field hand, geo technician and mining pit technician,” he said.
“It should also be ideal for EES students.
“Field trips are an essential part of studying anything related to geology; you simply can’t study geology by looking at pictures of rocks.
“The quarry has good examples of all three rock types: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary.
“It also makes sense for students to examine the methods used for relative dating while they are ‘hands-on’ in the quarry. There’s nothing like the real thing to bring it all into sharp focus.”
