Digital woodlands excursion | Stage 3 Creative Arts | Field of Mars EEC

Cost, risk assessment and details

Cost	DoE $27 per student – GST free Non-gov $37 per student – GST free, min charge $750 per class Term 1 – Non-gov weeks 3 to 5 cost = DoE cost – GST free, min charge $750
Classes	Recommended maximum 4 classes with up to 30 students per class.
Risk assessment	Field of Mars Reserve risk assessment - main location
Bring	Sports uniform, backpack, medication, low-waste food, water bottle, sunblock, raincoat, hat, sturdy shoes, reusable name tag.
View	Preparing for your excursion Digital woodlands social story
Welfare	Rugged bushwalking, limited wheelchair accessibility. May not suit recently unwell participants. For medical or special needs notify staff prior to program.
Extreme or wet weather	Program may be modified, postponed or cancelled due to predicted extreme temperatures, bush fire danger, heavy rainfall, high winds or dust storms.
Booking policy	Confirm student numbers and classes 7 days in advance.
Cancellation and rescheduling	Cancellation or rescheduling with less than 30 school days’ notice before the booking date – $650 Cancellation with less than 14 school days’ notice before the booking date – full program cost Cancellation due to unsafe weather or fire danger – $0

Activities

Activities may vary depending on student needs, timing and weather.

Introduction

Students begin a curated slide-show of powerful nature photographs. Through guided discussion, students reflect on how images can tell stories, influence people and support conservation.

Students explore key photographic techniques used in nature photography, including subject focus, macro, light, leading lines, framing and rule of thirds. Using examples, students practise identifying how each technique influences mood, balance and visual impact.

Field photography

Working in pairs, students photograph bushland features while applying the techniques introduced in class. Students practise safe fieldwork behaviours, experiment with angles and perspectives, and explain the compositional choices made for each image.

Students extend their skills through optional creative challenges such as forced perspective, natural alphabet, patterns and purposeful loose parts compositions. These tasks encourage experimentation, problem solving and refined observation of natural details.

Photo finish

Students use clear selection criteria to shortlist and justify their strongest images, then enhance photos using editing tools. They will also select a photo to be printed. Printed images and frames will be delivered to school after the excursion.

Students collaborate to create a digital photo book in Book Creator that showcases images representing each photographic technique as a chapter. Students design a cover page, sequence images for audience impact and share their finished book with teachers, reflecting on how their photography improved across the day.

Photo gallery

Time permitting, students view a slide-show of the day's best photographs and discuss the features and techniques used.

Explore related fact sheets

Use these student-friendly fact sheets before or after your Digital woodlands excursion to introduce natural subjects, habitats, textures, patterns and field photography ideas.

• ⁠Field of Mars Reserve fact sheet – Explore the bushland environment where students photograph plants, animals, textures and natural features.
• ⁠Eucalypt forest ecosystem fact sheet – Learn about the forest ecosystem students use as inspiration for digital photography.
• ⁠Plant fact sheets – Explore native plants with leaves, flowers, bark, colours and patterns suitable for close observation.
• ⁠Tree habitats fact sheet – Discover bark, branches, flowers, hollows and canopy features that can become photography subjects.
• ⁠Leaf litter habitats fact sheet – Learn about small forest-floor details that support macro photography and close observation.
• ⁠Habitat fact sheet – Learn how living and non-living features create places where organisms can survive.

Suggested timetable

Time	Activities
9.45 - 10.30	Introduction - taking great photos
10.30 - 10.45	Recess
10.45 - 12.15	Photography in the field
12.15 - 12.45	Lunch
12.45 - 2.00	Photo editing and digital book creation
2.00 - 2.15	Pack up and depart

Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary

critique, refine, evaluate, select, sequence, convey, audience, composition, rule of thirds, macro, leading lines, framing, perspective, exposure, focus

Syllabus outcomes and content

Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus (2024)

Visual Arts

Outcome

• Makes artworks using art forms to represent subject matter and ideas, and describes ways artists convey ideas about their world to audiences through artworks CA2-VIS-01

Content

Making: Artists represent their world through subject matter and ideas in artworks

• Represent subject matter and ideas in artworks, making choices based on own interpretations of the world
• Use drawing materials and techniques to create effects with texture and tone to represent subject matter and ideas
• Explore digital tools to make or manipulate still or moving images, text and/or sounds
• Explore balance, scale and proportion in compositions to represent subject matter and ideas
• Make artworks through collaboration with others
• Demonstrate safe art making practices with respect for physical, social and digital safety

Other syllabus links

Learning experiences will also support but not explicitly teach the following outcomes and content:

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024)

Physical and living systems depend on energy

Outcome

• Uses information to investigate the solar system and the effects of energy on living, physical and geological systems ST2-SCI-01

Content

Living things depend on energy and materials to survive

• Observe and describe living and non-living things in a habitat

Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024