Local secondary school students come year after year to participate in a program at Ballarat Tech School, where they design and produce their own local, sustainable, and ethical chocolate. The program has evolved since the Tech School opened in 2018, and more recent iterations combine indigenous bushfoods to create a more uniquely Australian alternative.
In the coming years, plant species in botanic gardens and urban landscapes will likely confront conditions they have never experienced before. The lessons learned in the context of a botanic garden are applicable to landscapes beyond their own garden gate. Collaboration between botanic gardens across the globe is essential in understanding how plants will grow and survive in a warming climate.
While Bogong Moth numbers have increased since the collapse of 2017 and 2018 due to the devastating drought across south-eastern Australia, their numbers remain dangerously low. They have failed to return to some long-term survey sites. While the La Niña weather pattern assisted numbers in 2022-2023, numbers in 2023-2024 were lower and grave concerns are held for future years under a changing climate.
Despite the advances made in modelling, translating ‘climate change’ into ‘weather change’ remains a major challenge for Earth System sciences. We cannot build new wind farms if we don’t know where strong, consistent winds will be, nor make informed decisions about new water catchment and storage infrastructure without more accurate data about future rainfall frequency and intensity.
Future careers will rely heavily on ‘21st century skills.’ To aim higher for science education, we require a multifaceted approach that addresses the diverse needs of students, integrates relevant content, and provides robust support for teachers. STEM can too often be perceived as “too difficult” or not interesting by students throughout their education.
