From banning the balloons to saving our sea turtles, the year three students were keen to raise awareness and funds for Australia’s endangered wildlife at their ‘5c Expo’ on Tuesday, December 5.

Fitting with the name, the children accepted five cent donations at their stalls, which will be given to Taronga and Melbourne zoos’ conservation funds.

The expo was a part of the school’s project based learning curriculum which teacher Kelly Rutherford explained as “hands on” for the students. 

“We try to focus on communication and cooperation, so that when the students are out working in the real world they have a good set of skills,” Ms Rutherford said.

The four classes were presented with the question, ‘Can our actions and decisions affect wildlife?’

To answer the question, students split into small groups to identify Australia’s most endangered species.

After conducting research, the students soon discovered our wildlife face an array of threats, such as loss of habitat, water pollution, disease and climate change.

Surprised by their discovery, the students decided to host a fundraiser to help out the animals.

The expo showcased the children’s projects and ideas, which were set up as individual stalls, all of which five cents could be donated to.

Year three student and conservation activist, Hayley Hardy described the idea behind her stall. 

“Our project is ‘ban the balloons’, because a lot of kids have balloons at their parties,” she said.

“Sometimes kids let go of them, and they travel far away and pop. When they pop, they can fall into the ocean and hurt or kill animals. So we want kids to use bubbles instead.”

Other projects included road safety around wildlife, replacing  plastic bags with reusable green bags, and how to help an animal that has been injured. 

It was obvious how much effort the students had put into the expo and how much research they had done in preparation for the day.

Written by work experience student, Morgan Hawkins.