Seek7: Investigating Clean Water and Sanitation

Term 2 is all go at Santa Maria College!

This week, our Year 7 students were introduced to the Seek7 program, one of our several exciting emPOWER learning projects. These projects align strongly with our College values and our vision to enact social change and positively impact people and our planet.

The theme of Seek7 is sustainability and looks at the importance of caring for our planet and the resources we rely on. Water is one of those resources and a strong project focal point.

We sat down with Elizabeth de Byl, who coordinates the Seek7 project, to learn more about the project’s intended purpose.

What is Seek7?

Seek7 allows our students to take a flexible approach to their learning to do deep work developing global competencies and essential skills. 

Seek7 is a term-long learning program where students work in HASS and Science to develop the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to develop an inquiry question provoked by United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Six (UN SDG 6): Clean water and sanitation.

Careful mapping has occurred across HASS and Science to ensure we can support the program’s aims while maintaining the curricula’s integrity. To highlight the connections between the geography we are doing in HASS and the work on liquids and solvents in Science and the core skills of creativity, collaboration and critical thinking, students complete a series of seven challenges ranging from local to global in scale. All reinforcing the importance of water and its effective management to sustaining life on earth now and into the future.

What sort of activities will Year 7 students be completing?

As mentioned, students will complete seven challenges across HASS and Science, focused on skill development. They will also participate in a Water Corporation Incursion, a United Nations sustainable development goals workshop, an excursion to Point Walter, a research skills workshop and have expert guest speakers come in.

These learning experiences will assist them to construct a group project provoked by UN SDG 6.

What skills will students have gained from taking part in this project?

We hope to help them develop a global mindset – they will see videos of students worldwide trying to work together to achieve UN SDG 6. We hope that they will see themselves as empowered agents of positive change. We are particularly zeroing in on their critical thinking, creative and collaborative skills as these ‘three C’s’ are essential for lifelong learning.

What are some other benefits of the project?

The girls see the relevance of what they are learning and its applications to real-world problems. They think beyond themselves.

For you, as a teacher, what is a highlight of the Seek7 project?

There are many highlights: seeing the girls grow in confidence and independence; they become drivers rather than passengers in their learning, which is what we want. The pride and passion they show at the exhibition night about helping others are extremely special, and it’s wonderful for them to share their projects with the community that evening. Their teachers are so passionate to see their students grow as learners and everyone puts so much into making this project successful.

Scroll to Top