Today we learned about Cooper Pedy. Cooper Pedy is located in South Australia, the closest town to it takes approximately 8 hours. This isolated town has a very unique feature. The residents live underground, these homes are called dugout houses. The residents live underground due to the extreme temperature such as harsh summers and freezing winters.
As a solution, many residents live in caves underground. The students and I were picturing a very caveman like lifestyle. However, we were very wrong. We watched a short clip on life in Cooper Pedy. The residents actually live a very similar life style to us. They have wifi, showers, television, windows, and kitchens.
Watching the short clip, the students and I picked up on Australian sland. The students and I learned “brekky” means breakfast. “Good arvo,” means good afternoon. We chuckled at the strangeness of these Australian slang terms.
We ended our time creating our own dugout houses. Did you know Cooper Pedy is one of the main locations where you can mine for the jewel, Opal. Students then had an activity where they had to mine for jewels- marbles.
It was a very educational and yet exciting day!
English Pocket Gotanda
