Final Week, Term One 2008

The culmination of all the work we have been doing both in the city and in the local environment is a parent night where we present our projects and have the opportunity to explain our findings in our own words. It was a tough night speaking in front of an audience, but the parents were very enthusiastic and appreciative of the effort we had made. It has been a journey full of surprises for everyone involved and a very worthwhile 'experience'.

This is the view from the back of the room as one of the groups make their presentarion.



COMMUNITY SERVICE PLACEMENTS

This is our final week in the Mordi Experience. We all worked hard at choosing and applying for our community placements way back in week 3. The time has come this week to travel each day to our placements and get a taste of what it is like to work for a living in one of these community facilities. Places like kindergartens, primary schools, council offices and swim centres are essential services within a community and spending some time in these places gives us a great insight into the services they provide.

Presentation Day

This morning was all about setting up the display boards, finalising the data and finishing off the project so that it can be displayed during our practice run through at the end of the day. Everybody was tired and hot with the temperature soaring close to 40 degrees outside. Even so the practice run through for Monday night's presentation to the parents showed that as well as some small amounts of unpreparedness generally all groups were ready to present their projects.

The final day of the City Experience

Celebration Dinner.
After we spent the rest of the afternoon sprucing up our display boards for our projects we all climbed aboard a tram bound for Lygon street and the famous Notturno Cafe.
All the pizza you can eat and gelati for dessert. Judging from the noise everybody was certainly having a fine dine. The food was good, the company was better and there was a real sense of friendships forged over the course of the fortnight. After dinner we all walked down to Swanston Street, hopped on a tram to Flinders Street Station and then caught the 7.15 pm to Mordialloc, so ending our City Experience.

Today is our last day in the city and our last opportunity to collect the data we need to complete our personal projects. However our fist item on the agenda was to visit the Melbourne Museum.

This we reached by tram up to Carlton Gardens and it was easy to find the new site of the Museum. The exhibits were very informative and surprisingly interesting. A personal fave was the Virtual Room. The 3D glasses really made the displays come alive especially the short movie of the Universe and Einstein's theory.
The rest of the day was spent back at the Hub where we had to continue with the final touches to our projects.

Wednesday 12th March.

Today we started off the day at Federation Square with the intention of surveying some random people about their opinions of Melbourne as a city. We all plan to use the results of these hard hitting surveys in our personal projects so that the voice of Melbourne can be heard.
It was then off to the
MAGISTRATE'S COURT
where we were privy to some of the workings of the justice system. What was amazing was the fact that we have our own Judge Judy styled magistrates in so far as they weren't putting up with any attitude from defence council and they were not shy in telling the defendants when they had stepped out of line (which was quite often!) This was quite an eye-opener and definitely worth the time.

"The Magistrate's Court was very interesting. I was looking forward to it all day to seeing the cases being handled. There were some interesting cases. My friend and I enjoyed the day and I hope to come back soon (though only as an observer)."

China town

This is the part of Melbourne that is devoted to Chinese cuisine and adds an Oriental flavour to this corner of the city. We strolled down this street and asked questions of the locals, trying to complete the self-guided tour sheet.



More about the Personal Projects.

Today was a consolidation day in regards to our own personal projects. We arrived at 8.55 as usual and began by adding more information to our project display boards.

Wen we're ready to go out and about to gather more information from the streets of Melbourne we have to use the in/out board so that someone knows we've gone out, where we're headed and what time we are expected back.

This is the team that is coordinating the program here at the city classroom

Eureka Tower SKYDECK.

This is currently the tallest tower in the city and you can ride an express elevator up to the 88th floor where a stunning vista awaits your eyes. You can see in all directions (except for up) the view down being the most disconcerting.

This is a great way to see the layout of the city and for those of us who think they know their way around the place it is the perfect way to add to your understanding of how Melbourne and it's suburbs are arranged. What is particularly apparent is the abundancce of parkland around the city fringes.

Albert Park Lake(-setting up for the Formula 1 Grand prix) and onward toward St Kilda.

South over Middle Park and down the bay. You can see the dredger at work and the plume streching out behind it.

Over Station Pier, where the Spirit of Tasmania docks, and out to Williamstown

This shot is to the Southwest towards Yarraville and Newport

Here we are looking out towards the wharves of Swanston Dock, with Bolte Bridge in the middle distance.

This is the parklands that surround the Myer Music Bowl (the home of Carols by Candlelight) and off to the right is Government House.

The largest Sports Arena in the Southern Hemisphere, and 15 hectares devoted to tennis in the foreground. Who said we weren't sports mad.

This is Swan Street Bridge which completes our 360 degree view around Melbourne.

Queen Victoria Markets.
The markets are situated at the Northern end of the city and we rode the tram up Elizabeth Street to get there. We had over two hours to explore the many stalls that were arranged in street style. The goods on sale were mostly produce and clothing. There were many produce stalls and they encompassed meat, cheese and dairy, smallgoods and vegtables. The clothing stalls sold every type of clothing and footwear you could imagine. Overall it was a very interesting experience, some of us embraced the challenge and bought some items (including live chicks) while others of us were content to sit back and soak up the atmosphere.

Searching for a bargain!

Organic vegtables.

You can get anything you want.....

A Tour through the MCG

THE MCG

One of the world's favorite sporting icons and we were lucky enough to be toured through by a member of the exclusive Melbourne Cricket Club. His name was Rex and he knew so much about the history of the ground as well as some enlighteneing insights into the different sports that have been played there over it's nearly 200 year existence. He also knew many stories about the characters of the games of cricket and aussie rules, and also of the commentators that called the sports for the radio and television stations. He made it a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon.

This view is from the back of the seats on ground level while the top shot is from the actual boundry line.

For the top of the Southern Stand

This is one of the football commentators boxes

The very comfy couches of the viewing window in the Long Room of the ultra exclusive Members area.

Settling in!

The view back to Melbourne.

The Indian cricket commentators box.

This is the media writers room.

A Project in Progress

We have decided to look at the fact that a lot of Art in Melbourne is not in a gallery. Even we were amazed at how true this statment was.