Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre

Experience Engage Enable

Telephone02 9816 1298

Emailfieldofmar-e.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Ecosystem explorers excursion program

Decorative images
decorative image
decorative image
decorative image

Teacher checklist

Location

Field of Mars Reserve – Pittwater Road, East Ryde

Wallumedegal Country

Google maps - Apple maps
Supply bus driver with Field of Mars Reserve bus information
Field of Mars Reserve risk management plan

View the YouTube track overview videos.

Buffalo Creek track

Doyle and Warada loop track

Strangers Creek loop track
Alternative location 1

Buffalo Creek Reserve – 117 Pittwater Road, Hunters Hill

Wallumedegal Country

Google maps - Apple maps

Supply bus driver with Buffalo Creek Reserve bus access.

No bus entry into Buffalo Creek Reserve carpark.
Buffalo Creek Reserve risk management plan
View the YouTube track overview video Sugarloaf Point loop track  
Alternative location 2

STEP track via Canoon Road Recreation Area – Canoon Road, South Turramurra

Terramerragal Country

Google maps - Apple maps
Supply bus driver with Canoon Road Recreation Area bus access
STEP Track risk management plan
View the YouTube track overview video STEP track
Cost

2025 DoE $25 per student - GST free

2025 Non-gov school cost $35 per student - GST free, minimum charge $750

Term 1 - Catholic school Weeks 3 to 7  cost = DoE cost - GST free, minimum charge $750
Welfare

Participants will be bushwalking during the day in rugged terrain.

Limited wheelchair accessibility. Email to confirm with location.

This excursion may not be suitable for people who have been recently unwell.
Bring

Backpack, medication, low-waste food, water bottle, sunblock, raincoat, hat, sturdy shoes.

Students wear reusable name tag and sports uniform.
View

Preparing for an excursion
Supporting resources

Eucalypt Forest - available free from Apple Books

Fact sheets
Bin access

All student waste to be taken home by students.
Parent/carer helpers Optional one parent per class, no siblings. Closed shoes essential. 
Medical or special needs

Notify Field of Mars staff prior to excursion. 

Students, staff and visitors must not attend if unwell, even with mild symptoms. 
Extreme or wet weather

Days predicted to be above 35ºC, high winds, extreme bush fire danger and dust storms may result in the excursion being modified, postponed or cancelled. 
Cancellations

Cancellations with less than four school weeks' notice will incur a $500 administration fee. This does not apply to cancellations due to weather or fire danger.

Suggested timetable for up to six classes

Time

Classes A, B, C, D, E, F
9.45 - 10.20

Introduction

Toilets, recess, equipment bags distributed
10.20 - 1.20

Bushwalk and activities
1.20 - 1.40

Lunch on site
1.40 - 2.00

Concluding activity
2.00 - 2.15  Pack up and depart

decorative image
decorative image

Learning activities

Working as ecologists students investigate the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere of the Field of Mars Reserve. 

Inquiry questions

  • How are the needs of living things provided by Earth's systems?
  • What are the habitats and ecosystems within the Field of Mars Reserve?
  • What are the living and non living components of a habitat?
  • How do plants and animals depend on each other?

Fieldwork

Students will undertake a bushwalk though the Field of Mars Reserve.

As they walk through diverse ecosystems, the young ecologists will observe various habitats, recording the interactions between living organisms and their non-living surroundings, such as soil, water and air.

We will acknowledge the practices of the Wallumedegal Peoples in sustainably managing the environment.

Fieldwork tools will include sensory observation, invertebrate hunts, scientific equipment and recording through sketching, mapping, watercolour and tallies in their take-home field journal.

Students will also work independently guided by task cards catering for a variety of learning styles. Teachers will be encouraged to take photographs for student use back in the classroom.

Hands-on activities focusing on food chains and ecosystem relationships will conclude the day.

Decorative image
Decorative image

Syllabus outcomes and content 

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024)

Outcomes

A student:

  • uses information to investigate the solar system and the effects of energy on living, physical and geological systems ST2-SCI-01
  • uses and interprets data to describe patterns and relationships ST2-DAT-01

Content

Living things depend on energy and materials to survive

Students:

  • Identify the systems of Earth that make up environments: air – atmosphere, land – lithosphere, water – hydrosphere, living things – biosphere
  • Describe how the needs of living things are provided by the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere
  • Describe the relationship between habitat, ecosystem and environment
  • Observe and describe living and non-living things in a habitat
  • Describe how Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ practices support habitats to survive
  • Describe the transfer of energy between plants and animals using food chains, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary

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

Return to program summary

Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre

General enquiries

CallGet directionsMail

Follow us

We’d like to acknowledge the Wallumedegal Peoples of the Darug Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we stand and pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Copyright for this website is owned by the State of New South Wales through the Department of Education. For more information go to http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/footer/copyright.