Lecturer Paddy McCarthy lays some fleece out onto the skirting table for the Year 9 and 10 students at the science experience day at Dookie.
Rural and urban Year 9 and 10 students came together for a ‘science experience’ with an agricultural flavour at Melbourne University’s Dookie campus last week.
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For some students from inner-city Melbourne, it was three days of firsts, experiencing rural life, witnessing a working farm and getting hands on with the animals.
The camp hosts students from 13 different schools from across Victoria, including FCJ College, Benalla and Notre Dame College, Shepparton.
Dookie campus has a working agricultural farm that includes a broadacre farm, a dairy farm with a robotic dairy, orchard, winery and a natural bush reserve.
University of Melbourne Lecturer Karen Edwards said students would have the opportunity to examine real world agricultural science and further ignite their passion for science.
“Over the three days, school students joined scientists and agricultural student mentors in hands-on activities in the laboratory and out in the paddock,” she said.
“With activities including biodiversity, sheep science and our robotic dairy, we hope to inspire the next generation of farmers, soil scientists, conservationists and more.”
The program is designed to provide students who are interested in science with a chance to try their hand at a wide range of activities and access to leading researchers passionate about their fields.
Farmer Frank O’Connor gives a shearing demonstration to the secondary school students at the Melbourne University Dookie campus.
Some of the students at the Dookie campus sheep yards where they experienced some of the subtleties of handling sheep.
Shearer and farmer Frank O’Connor explains how a sheep is shorn at the science experience day at the Melbourne University Dookie campus.
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