Ally McNamara interviews a city dweller on her project topic.By Sarah Schwager
CRANBOURNE Secondary College year nine students spent a week traipsing the city in a new program to help them cope with the approaching world of adulthood.
The City Centre program, run by the Education Foundation, saw the students travel back and forth from the city on the train each day to take part in the project-based learning program.
Paul Evans, leading teacher (year nine curriculum), said the students invented a project, then researched it by going out on to the streets and interviewing people.
The week also included trips to Urban Seed, a not-for-profit organisation dealing with ‘street’ issues, SYN FM, a student radio station based at RMIT, Collingwood Football Club, Fitness First gym, the Queen Victoria Market, and a two-hour session with former AFL player Jim Stynes’s organisation Reach.
A selected group of students also took part in a boardroom conference at either Rio Tinto or the National Australia Bank.
“The response has been so positive,” Mr Evans said. “The kids loved it.”
A month before the program started, the students developed an idea for their city project, for example homelessness or the different perceptions of soccer and AFL.
They then came up with a hypothesis for their project, which they had to prove through their investigations, research and interviews.
Working in groups of between three and six, the students devised a questionnaire that the group had to put to 100 people on the streets.
They also conducted at least two interviews with experts in the field, which were either video taped or recorded.
The groups are now collating their data to put into a finished presentation on either Windows Movie Maker or Power Point, which will be shown to parents over three nights.
“This project gave them some things they may experience when they are adults such as commuting to work,” Mr Evans said.
“It gives them an idea of the responsibilities they might have when they are older.”
Mr Evans said the program also encouraged the students’ learning at an age when their hormones were kicking in and they were feeling they wanted to be adults.
“Year nine is a difficult transition for kids. This program gives us an opportunity to do something positive with them.”
