Fieldwork!

We are midway through the course and the students continue to learn something new every day. Yesterday, we visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Crystal, a Sydney CIEE staff member and artist, showed us classic works by Eugene Von Guerard that were used to promote Australia’s lush greenery to English colonizers. The artwork was also used as an early conservation practice.

Today, we went to Centennial Park, a local favorite for relaxation and recreation. The students completed fieldwork at five different ponds within the park. They identified wildlife within the ponds, learned how to use field equipment, undertook biotic testing, and completed a worksheet with their findings. We also discovered a colony of bats that have migrated to Centennial Park from the touristic Sydney Harbor. It was an engaging way to see the effects that human population and climate change have on even the tiniest organisms.