Written by the Year 5/6/7s in Room 19-1
On Tuesday 22nd of September three classes from the Upper Primary block went to the Birdwood Motor Museum. The purpose of the visit was to educate us about ideas for our business and economics unit.
We had to be at school by 8:20am so we wouldn’t miss the bus to take us to the museum. When we got on the bus, we found our seats and some people had to sit at the front so they wouldn’t get bus sick. The bus trip took an hour and a half.
After we got off of the bus, we were introduced to Andrew and Kylie who work at the Motor Museum. They showed us around before we got to do our activities. We had a quick recess and toilet break before we got started.
Our class broke into three groups and started with the “Hunt for Junk” task. The Hunt for Junk was all about looking for 35 items such as Liquid Paper, Old Keys and a Vegemite jar. We searched and searched and searched. Imagine our surprise when we found all of these items on the shell of a V8, rear wheel drive Holden Commodore.
Before we started our next activity we had some time on the interactive games in the Motor Museum. There were some older games and some newer games including the first steering simulation and other games based on vehicles and cars. The games were highly enjoyable and it was very competitive to get some time on them.
Our next activity was “I Spy” where we had to find certain items including models of Model T Fords. Some of the interesting things we saw included the innovations introduced to motor vehicles over the years such as indicators – instead of metal hands to poke out of the sides of windows, seat belts (in some cases a lack of), vintage cars and trucks such as old fire trucks, an old jukebox and some incredible sports cars. There were many interactive stations to help us learn about the technology involved in the changes and upgrades to the modernising of transport. There was also a sponsored car from the Olympics which made us notice much of the advertising placed on many of the vehicles and we saw videos of assembly lines at work.
Finally, our class was involved in an assembly line. We each had a specific role to perform in order to make cardboard model T Fords to take back to class. We learned what an assembly line is, how to control and order an assembly line and how to work collaboratively. Andrew spoke to us about the difference between making cars with and without an assembly line and it astounded us how valuable the efficiency of an assembly line was. It took one year for four people to build two cars before Henry Ford introduced the assembly line for the manufacturing of cars.
We are hoping that the ideas seen at the Birdwood museum for manufacturing, selling and advertising will inspire us in the production of our own Marketplace in Business and Economics lessons. This is happening on Monday the 16th of November (Week 6). We have been learning how to create and run our own mini- businesses in small teams. The focus has been on working with others as well as working out the costs, market research, advertising, income and profits of running a business. We are hoping students will come on the Monday of our Marketplace with up to $5 to purchase products such as drinks, cookies, games, goods and entertainment designed and made by our own businesses. Profits will be calculated and we will decide how to spend them as a group on something to give back to the school. Please see the attached flyer.
