4BU’s Matt Gees speaks about project-based learning at the Bundaberg Christian College.

Year 6 students at Bundaberg Christian College have been immersing themselves in the lives of refugees as part of an intense focus within their curriculum. 

Known as “project Based learning”, the students engage with their regular studies through the lens of a known issue or focus. For these year 6’s its all about “Called to Care”. 

Teacher, Marala Elson, describes project-based learning as basing education around real world concepts where students can generate their own questions around an issue and have a choice and a voice on how and what they learn about that issue. The students learnt about displaced people and asylum seekers putting themselves in to the other person’s perspective. Each of the students chose a refugee to research and write about in first person so that they can learn and help teach others what it’s really like. 

“When it comes to being called to care for other people, we investigate the impacts of natural disasters in our science curriculum and the impact that has on people across the world. In HASS (History and Social Science) we focus on the history of migration from Federation to Now along with the positives and negatives. Then in mathematics we explore the numbers side of the issue incorporating the theme of being called to care when working within the mathematical strategies we are teaching at this level.”

Marlana Elson – Year 6 teacher

The next step in this project-based learning idea is to incorporate it into more than just one subject. Mrs Elson also points out that the project raised money for a local Refugee charity by collecting gold coin donations from a free dress day. 

The entire semester learning came to a head in week 9 of term 2 as they transformed part of their school into something resembling a refugee camp. The students and their teachers set up a tent city, hung washing on pieces of rope between 2 buildings and shared the stories of the refugees they researched with parents and other students from across the primary school. There was even a passport control where the younger students could pick up their own passport, get it stamped and then visit other “countries” (the students in the tents telling their refugee stories) and have their passport stamped.  

For Bundaberg Christian College the endgame is about students growing and developing an empathetic heart and understanding of other people. They want to leave the students with an understanding that they can and should leave a positive impact on the world and be able to engage with and help those whose life experience is different to their own.