A group of south-western Sydney students is gaining a better understanding of its local ecosystem through a middle years’ science and technology project involving the ICT Innovations Centre at Macquarie University.

Students from Liverpool Girls High School are mentoring Warwick Farm Public School students in the use of sophisticated mobile technology to take a range of measures – including water quality tests and soil phosphate readings – from a nearby ecosystem. Back in the classroom students upload the data to a wiki hosted by the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre.

The ICT Innovations Centre director, Debbie Evans, said while the Local Ecostudy Project focus is on exploring the “health” of ecosystems, the technology helps “bring the learning to life”. The use of the palm-held NOVA 5000 computer allows students to take real-time measurements in the field.

“You can connect the data loggers and the sensors directly to the computer and get a visual representation of the graph as it is happening,” Mrs Evans said. “It’s live, and it’s happening right there in front of the students.”

Teachers and secondary students are trained how to use the advanced technology by ICT Innovations Centre staff. Participating teachers also develop the ecosystem investigation using wiki technology.

Secondary students then attend a simulation day before working with teachers and primary school students in their local area. Throughout the process, the innovations centre provides support to teachers and students. Staff from environmental education centres and the Centre for Learning Innovation are also involved during the field investigation.

Liverpool Girls High School deputy principal Maria Allan said the project started this term and involves Year 9 students working with Warwick Farm Public School Year 5 and 6 students to investigate Brickmakers Creek adjacent to the primary school.

Ms Allan said the project, involving about 100 students, would “promote the profile of science among students, develop leadership and builds upon the school’s strong environmental science focus through activities which include Streamwatch”.

Trish Brett, the school’s science head teacher, said students would be “more effectively engaged in scientific processes” through the use of technology.

Warwick Farm Public School principal Lyn Flegg said the project would “broaden the horizons” of the primary school students and underline the “importance of science in protecting the environment”.

The investigation at Brickmakers Creek extends the Local Ecostudy Project outside the Northern Sydney region, where three high schools partnered three primary schools in similar projects last term.

Mrs Evans said she hoped to expand the project to include other schools later this year.