Surfside Primary School’s annual Threatened Species Bake Off is in full swing again, delivering delicious treats while engaging students with concepts of conservation of native species.
Surfside students from grades three and five design and create cupcakes representing threatened Australian species, as part of their Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program.
This is the second year the Ocean Grove school has run the event in conjunction with the Australian Geographic Threatened Species Bake Off.
Kitchen Garden program kitchen specialist Fleur Kilpatrick said the students were having a lot of fun imagining, baking and eating their nature-themed cupcake creations.
“They love it, and I really feel their creativity comes out in this fortnightly cycle of recipes,” Ms Kilpatrick said.
“They research the animal, they plan, they sketch their cupcake and then they come and create it.”
Ms Kilpatrick said the students gaining understanding of the perilous situation many species faced was also an important part of the activity.
“They really come to that awareness of the gravity of the threatened species’ situation,” she said.
“September 7 is National Threatened Species Day, the day where they believe the Tasmanian Tiger became extinct in 1936.
“So it’s a real eye-opener for a lot of students that species are becoming extinct and a lot are threatened. It creates a bit of an impact on them.”
The local winners of the grade five section will be entered in the official event.
