The excursion to Sanatorium Lake in the Macedon Ranges provides teachers with an excellent opportunity to embed authentic learning experiences into the teaching of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS). By engaging directly with the environment and its history, students are not passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in inquiry. The excursion aims to spark the students curiosity with pre and post activities that relate to the excursion and also exploring other aspects of the level 5-6 Victorian Geography Curriculum. Todd Kashdan talks about curiosity being ‘the entry point to many of life’s greatest sources of meaning and satisfaction’ (Greater Good Science Center, 2018) The 3 types of curiosity we see in the Humanities and Social Science classroom is Joyus Exploration, Need to know and Social Curiosity. The excursion to Sanatorium Lake I believe sparks all three of these. As students experience the walk and listen to the audio they will come across many signs that provide information which they read and gain instant research into the area which they are then encouraged back in the classroom to go back and further explore.

 

The HaSS curriculum emphasises the importance of Inquiry Based learning where students actively investigate questions, issues, and problems relevant to their world. This is also known as Problem Based Learning, where students are given opportunity to tackle real world problems rather than passively receiving information. By taking the classroom environment into an outdoor environment such as Sanatorium Lake gives students opportunities to practice skills in an authentic location. Simon Beames states ’Learning through local landscape can enable students to develop meaningful connections with their peers, their people, and their place’ (Beames, 2011) which highlights the value of outdoor learning developing social and environmental awareness.

 

Following the excursion there are many aspects of the HaSS Curriculum which can be looked into including the aspects of the Victorian Curriculum such as ‘explaining the impacts of fire on Australian vegetation and the significance of fire damage to human communities’ (VCAA], n.d.) This leads to the students becoming active and informed citizens in their learning which Reynolds states ‘To be active and informed citizens, students must study meaningful, value-laden issues in an inquiry approach that enables them to consider visions for the future.’ (Reynolds, 2019) Students will look into past events and come up with ways for future generations to come that can help preserve the surrounding area in terms of severe weather events such as bush fires which have severely affected the are in the past.

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