Australia DSA - Final Thoughts

Well, I’ve been home nearly a month now and I think I’m all caught up on my sleep and no longer "on the trip" in my dreams. As I’ve seen friends and family since returning home, I have enjoyed sharing with them my photos and adventures from “Down Under.” Anytime I am asked, “How was your trip?” I say the same thing…”It was amazing!” There is one question I always get asked that I never have an answer for, “What was your favorite thing?” I tell people that every activity we did was special and unique…picking just one favorite is impossible.

When you travel to another country, you want to see all of the great landmarks and attractions, and boy did we…We traveled along the rugged, yet beautiful coast of the Great Ocean Road. We played in the rain among the treetops at the Otway Fly. We witnessed the magnificent sunrise at Uluru. And we saw the rainbow of colors in the fish and coral on The Great Barrier Reef.

Not only do you want to see these sites, but you also want to meet people and become a part of the country's culture. From this adventure I will take away so many wonderful memories, not only of the sites we saw, but of the people we met. After this trip I am convinced that a country's people are what truly makes an adventure amazing. As I created this final blog post, I wanted to take some time to reflect on those special people we met in Australia.


Marion at the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Park. Marion was one of the first Australians we met and she was anxious to welcome us…and put us to work. Shovels in hand, she lead us to Rita the Wombat’s enclosure where we got our hands dirty. It was great! She didn’t cut us any slack for just getting off a 15 hour flight…she had a job for us and that job needed to get done, even in the rain. Marion wanted everyone to get a fist-hand experience while at the park.


Bill and Jan at the Ooraminna Station Homestead. I felt like I was home the minute we arrived at the homestead. The hospitality of the Hayes family was amazing. They greeted us as we climbed off our muddy coach with huge smiles. I’m not sure if they were aware as to what they were getting into with our group. :o) Everyone at the homestead took us under their wing – helped us crack the whip, get our swags set up, shared the history of the station, taught us about the stars of the southern hemisphere, and even let us set up a geocache just out off their front porch! Each meal they were right beside us, sharing stories and tales. They did it all and we absolutely loved our stay…thank you Hayes family!


Cassidy is an Anangu gentlemen who, in the shadow of Uluru, shared stories and legends of his Aboriginal culture. With the help of his translator, John, we learned the true resourcefulness of the Aborigines. Using leaves from the native acacia tree, Cassidy demonstrated a glue-making process. He also gave us the opportunity to try our hand with native hunting spears. And finally, dot painting. Cassidy and John shared with us the important role dot painting has played in the culture and provided us guidance with our personal creations. We were truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend time with these two gentlemen.




Terry and Jacque on the banana farm. Could you think of a better way to start your day…lamingtons, tea, coffee, and on the farm!?!? We were greeted by a barefooted Terry, with iPhone in hand, who quickly whisked us off on the banana cart. As we toured the 600 acre farm, Terry shared stories, facts and jokes. His sense of humor reminded me of my late grandfather. As I reflected back on our time at the farm, I once again felt like I had been visiting a relative. I will say one thing Terry…you still owe me a banana! :o)


Dunken with Reef HQ and Orpheus Island. During our time at the aquarium and on the island, Dunken wore many hats: scientist, instructor, tour guide, tech support, concierge, alarm clock, and cheerleader with the consistent phrase, “Okay beautiful people.” Whatever you needed, Dunken was there! He made sure everyone was safe and enjoying their time learning about The Great Barrier Reef and the ocean in general. I believe that Dunken and his staff had a huge impact on the students which will lead them to make changes in their daily lives.


And last, but DEFINITELY not least, Amanda - our tour manager extraordinaire! I have never seen someone remain so calm and collected under such pressure. (She would make a great teacher!) When some students were feeling car sick, she sought out some ginger. When we couldn’t make it to the bush camp due to rain, she wrangled up a 4 Wheel Drive coach. And when an item was lost, she sent out the search party. Amanda made our trip amazing with all of her hard work and information…it wouldn’t have been the same without her.



Finally, I want to thank all of the amazing folks at Discovery Student Adventures and Discovery Education for giving my students and I the opportunity to take part in this amazing trip. We have come home from Australia with friends and memories that will last a lifetime.

We Have Humidity!

Up until yesterday, I had never said, “I love the humidity!” We have truly enjoyed our warm, humid weather here in Northern Australia. After leaving the center we headed north to Cairns and made a stop at Hartley’s Crocodile Farm. We were treated to an amazing show and dinner. Along with the giant crocs, another one of the night’s highlights was the up-close visit with a koala.

We did have some rain this morning, but we were on the coach headed to the banana farm, so we managed to stay dry. And we were treated to several more rainbows…something else that has been as common as the rain.

Before hopping on the “banana bus,” we enjoyed some tea and lamingtons on the front porch of our hosts. On our way to the banana fields we stopped by a gorgeous waterfall. For me, the biggest surprise about the banana trees were the large, plastic bags covering the bunches of bananas. The bags protect the bananas from the sun and pests. They are different colors based on their stage of ripening.

We finally arrived at the packing building and the kids enjoyed playing in the water as the bananas were being washed. As you can imagine, there was a “small” amount of water that made its way out of the trough.

Back on the coach we headed south from Cairns to Townsville. It was exciting to meet the staff members at Reef HQ who will be working with us over the next few days. We got a quick tour of the aquarium and then headed over to the dive shop for a snorkel lesson. All of the kids did an amazing job and are ready for the Great Barrier Reef.

We will be learning more about this amazing ecosystem tomorrow and will venture out to the waters around Orpheus Island on Thursday where we will take part in a research project in conjunction with James Cook University. I am very excited to be sharing a passion of mine, the underwater world, with my students. Everyone is looking forward to the reef.

In The Shadow of Uluru and Aboriginal Culture

On day 5 of our adventure we were fortunate enough to be treated to two things. First we were set to learn about aboriginal culture from an expert. Second, we were to get our first site of Uluru (Ayers Rock). This was to be a welcomed change of scenery, or so we thought, since our previous location the Ooraminna Bush Camp was rained out. At the bush camp we missed out on one of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip and that was to get a lesson on the Southern Hemisphere night sky. While we were at the Bush Camp we were treated very warmly by Bill and Jan.

The Ooraminna camp was in a very remote area about 1 hour out of Alice Springs. While there we learned about the cattle farming industry and how herders lived. We also spent the night outside in our custom built swags (padding, sheets, sleeping bag, and pillow). Jennifer Jensen and I already had planned on doing some geocaching with the students while on this trip and we felt this was the best place for us to not go geocaching, but rather create a cache. So we set one up with a Discovery Education travel bug and the best part was explaining the whole concept of geocaching to Bill and Jan.And our final offer of appreciation for their wonderful hospitality was me giving my Discovery Educator Network hat to Bill so he could add it to his hat collection on the wall in the dining area.




Our drive to Uluru took almost 6 hours and took us across the desert landscape of Central Australia. The most fascinating thing of the landscape were the trees and that famous red dirt. I can certainly appreciate anybody who has been here and says that dirt gets on your shoes and does not come off. At this point since I have so thoroughly enjoyed this trip I am not so sure I want it to come off my shoes. I created a digital story about our day that is below:

On The Road To The Fly

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As our student adventure continues and we become more acclimated to the time, climate, food, and Australian slang terms (this is the best part) our experiences are having more of an impact. On our second day here we had the privilege of taking a drive on one of the top drives in the world. We were heading to the Otway Ranges and we went along the Southern Australian coast to get there. The road we took is known as The Great Ocean Road.

This road was built by Australians after WWI and during a time of economic depression provided many with desperately needed jobs. The took about 15 to construct and was built using dynamite, pick axes, and shovels. The road takes you along the southern coast of Australia and is quite windy in many sections. We were provided with lots of historical information about this area and the road itself by our travel manager Amanda. In many sections of the road we were told that there have been fires during periods of drought that have destroyed the landscape, including the great bush fire of 1983 (Also called Ash Wednesday). We were also treated with many spectacular panoramic views of the varying coastline. One of my favorite views is capture in the picture below

Upon our arrival to Otway the first order of business, besides lunch, was for the students to learn about the types of trees that are in the area. The best part was the students all were going to plant two different trees. The two types of trees they planted were Mountain Ash and Myrtle Beech. We had a fantastic guide during our time at Otway, his name is Peter. He shared a many great things about rain forests, climate change, the cyclical environment of the rain forest, and the impact rain forests have on our environment. One of our students, Sophie Bridges, had the opportunity to conduct a brief interview of Peter which is below.

The most important theme for the day was the emphasis of the interrelated nature of all the things in the forest. So for example: tree leaves drop water to the ground in areas that its' roots can get the water, water helps the trees grow (in addition to photosynthesis), the leaves also hold enough moisture that evaporates into the atmosphere that condenses and turns to rain, which in turn drops down to the leaves, and the cycle begins again. This is but one example of not only why trees are vital to a rain forest, but also how interrelated things are in the rain forest.

Can you think of other ways in which the rain forest is beneficial and vital to our environment?

Australian Sunrise

Phenomenal, amazing, gorgeous, beautiful, spiritual, inspiring…

I’m not sure there are really any words to describe this morning’s experience at Uluru.  We had been disappointed the night before due to the fact there was no sunset on the rock.  Everyone was holding out hope for this morning and we weren’t disappointed.

The morning of course started out like all of our mornings - cloudy and overcast…even had a little drizzle.  (Drizzle – something else that rarely happens in Australia.)  Just as we were getting ready to leave Uluru, the sun peaked through the clouds.  I think the photos speak for themselves.  It was a morning we will remember forever.

Lemonade in the Outback

Turning lemons into lemonade…an expression I have heard a number of times on our trip. We've encountered several instances where we’ve had to make a few modifications to our daily itinerary or purchase necessary supplies. Saturday was an instance when most people would have thrown in the towel, but our travel manager Amanda did an amazing job of saving the day.

On average, the Outback around Alice Springs averages 10 rainy days a year and we managed to visit on one of those days! Our motor coach wasn’t going to make it down the roads due to the rainfall, so they arranged for a four-wheel drive coach to come and take us to the Ooamainni Camp.

We had the good fortune of taking the “back” roads which provided us with an amazing adventure.

Seeing the Outback from this perspective was a real treat. The contrast between the deep, red soil and the green of the vegetation was beautiful. We had a great time slip-sliding our way to the station/camp.

Had we actually encountered the “typical” weather of the Outback, we wouldn’t have had this unique opportunity to venture through the back roads that most people never see.

Melbourne and the Moonlit Animal Sanctuary

Upon our arrival to Melbourne, Australia our fully loaded itinerary jumped into high speed.  We spent a portion of our first morning here touring the great city of Melbourne.  We learned many cool things about the city.  Among the many things we learned are that there is loads of art around the city and the architecture is as wide a variety as the culture here.  One of the buildings that I found of particular interest was the Flinders Street Station.  I was able to capture a number of photos of this great building.  Below is one of the photos I was able to get

After our seemingly brief tour of the city (I would like to return at some point) we headed out to the Moonlit Animal Sanctuary.  There the students learned many things about the animals in Australia, their habitats, their behavioral characteristics, and the effects of environmental change on them.  We learned many interesting things about the animals in Australia.  One student, Lulu, had the opportunity to interview one of the animal managers at Moonlit.  The interview is below. 

So I will close this posting with the following questions for the readers:

What percentage of animals in Australia are mammal?

Of this percentage what is the percent of mammals that are also marsupial?

And finally what percentage of the animals are nocturnal?

Feel free to post your reply in the comments section or even better see if you can get one or more of your students to research the answers to these questions.

Note: We learned the answers to these questions during our time at the animal sanctuary

The Land uʍop ɹǝpun

As I write this posting I am beginning to sense the excitement and anticipation of my students going on this awesome trip with me.  This is the first time I have ever traveled with students and while I have had a desire to travel with students before now, this is the perfect scenario.  We are heading to the land down under, also known as Australia.  I am very much looking forward to all the wonderful things we will learn and experience.  Our itinerary is quite extensive and how we will manage all that fun will be the most challenging and welcoming part.  In fact our itinerary can be found here.

I have had the fortunate opportunity to travel to many countries and this will be my first trip to Australia.  One of the things I look forward to doing is capturing and sharing our experiences with lots of photos, more blog postings, videos, and podcasts.  Most of our content will be published or linked on this blog.  We also have twitter accounts set up so I will be posting to twitter here.

As the trip fast approaches I am hopeful that many of my friends and fellow educators around the world will encourage their students to follow along virtually with our journey and participate in our learning by adding comments to our blog postings, adding questions about things we are learning, postings comments on our twitter feeds, and perhaps creating digital stories with the photos we publish.  If you have a specific request for content, by all means let us know.  Also if you are an educator reading this and you are not part of the Discovery Educator Network now is your chance to take that next step in growing as a professional.  The link to the DEN can be found here.  Also if you have an interest in perhaps taking an adventure trip with a lucky group of students there is no better group to work with than the Discovery Student Adventures.  They can be found here.

And so with that I leave this posting with a few Australian phrases that I will be sure to use while I am there.

Away with the pixies  = Daydreaming

Bush = Land outside of the city

Good on ya = Good for you

Who can tell me what "Didgeridoo" means and post a little history about it?