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www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/adelaidemtloftyranges

Recently, several NRM Education staff were lucky enough to attend and present at the Australian Association for Environmental Education conference.

It was an inspiring experience to see the great work that is happening in regards to education for sustainability across Australia and indeed in other parts of the world. More importantly, it was a time to reflect on the excellent work South Australian educators and students are doing in their schools and communities in making the shift towards sustainable lifestyles.

At the beginning of the year, we posed some questions based on the United Nation’s vision on learning:

What if learning was about knowledge and also about doing, being, interacting with others and changing the world?

…What if education prepared learners to be resilient, to be responsible citizens, to recognise and solve local issues?

…What if learning was enjoyable and hands-on?

…What if every person benefited from an education promoting development that is environmentally sound, socially equitable, culturally sensitive and economically just?

….then we would be educating for a more sustainable future.

This is precisely what schools have been doing across the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges region over the last 12 months.

In October, 20 schools from across the state were recognised for their achievements in their education for sustainability goals. Nine sites were in the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges region.

Congratulations to: Allenby Garden Primary, All Saints Catholic Primary, Brighton Primary, St Martin’s Parish School, St Michael’s College – Primary Campus, Paralowie Kindy, Tanunda Lutheran Early Learning Centre, The Hub Preschool and Windsor Gardens Primary.

Learn more about the achievements of Allenby Gardens PS and Tanunda Lutheran ELC on page 4.

This represents just a small snippet of the great work that local early years sites and schools have been doing to educate for sustainability. To find out more about these sites and many others, please visit our website to view their case studies.

Visit www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/adelaidemtloftyranges and search for ‘Education’.

As we approach the end of the year we would like to celebrate and congratulate you and your students in your achievements for 2014. It is a pleasure working with you and NRM Education looks forward to being your partners in sustainability in 2015!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year J

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

2 Youth Environment Council students share their work at a mini-trade fair

3 YEC mini-trade fair gallery

4 Recognising the great work of local schools and preschools

5 Youth Environment Leaders making a real difference

6 Students can help staff design natural playspaces

TERM 4 2014 ISSUE

Celebrating sustainable learning

Representatives from Brighton PS collect their recognition certificate from Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board Presiding Member Chris Daniels and NRM Education’s Elisia Banks

Cleland Wildlife Park provided the perfect backdrop for the final Youth Environment Council event for 2014. Students from across SA shared and celebrated their sustainability achievements in their schools and local communities. What better way to learn about the environmental challenges facing SA (and how to tackle them!) than from each other?

Each student representative brought a project display, detailing and showcasing the sustainability project they had worked on since their YEC Leadership Camp.

The students created an informative, engaging and colourful mini-trade display with 3D models, posters, videos, surveys, games, quizzes, stickers, photographs, podcasts and more! Projects ranged from global issues such as palm oil, fracking and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, to local issues of revegetation, water conservation and sustainable lifestyle choices.

The highlight of the day was showcasing the displays to parents/caregivers and our invited guests, including the Sustainability, Environment and Conservation Minister Ian Hunter.

It was a great opportunity for our young leaders to talk to Minister Hunter about what they are passionate about and why it is important to them. As young people, they can make a difference, and this was their chance to stand up and be heard.

Other activities included a special Wild Show by Cleland Education Officer Claire, where council representatives were introduced to some furry and scaly Australian friends (including a shingleback lizard called Beyonce!), team building games and a brainstorming session on ‘where to from here’?

Minister Hunter presented certificates and gift bags (and happily posed for photographs with excited student representatives!) before the council wrapped up for another successful year.

The NRM Education team is extremely proud of all council representatives, for their hard work, dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm at this event, and throughout the year.

We can’t wait for next year!

Youth Environment Council students share their work at a mini-trade fair

Top and middle: YEC students showcasing their displays.Bottom: YEC Executives pose for a photograph with Minister Hunter.

2 | Natural Resources Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges

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YEC mini-trade fair galleryThe YEC students put together some absolutely amazing displays for their sharing and celebration event!

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Food gardenAllenby Gardens Primary School’s food garden caters to the different needs and learning styles of students, such as fulfilling sensory needs.

The garden was first developed as a learning space through working out what educational outcomes students needed and using the garden to achieve them. The school now uses the garden environment to help students learn, by creating an adaptable learning space.

The environmental lessons that students undertake in the garden cut across the entire curriculum. Examples include the water cycle where students make structures out of sand and watch what happens as they simulate rainfall, where the water ends up and what happens to the environment around the waterways.

Students also learn about procedures by making bird feeders, and all classes are involved in the compost or bokashi bins and the worm farm, to learn about waste, decomposition, and how this helps the garden and environment.

This adaptable learning space has resulted in more teachers adopting the garden as a learning environment, utilising the site to educate their students.

Bush blockSince Tanunda Lutheran Early Learning Centre developed a bush block many activities now encourage students to learn in diverse and exciting ways.

Activities include workshops which teach children about animals, plants, geology or indigenous heritage in fun ways like building frog ponds and forts, bird watching, cooking damper on an open fire or examining rocks under digital microscopes.

These activities help children discover the many learning opportunities that the bush block provides and this is encouraged and formalised in the classroom by their teachers.

It’s not just the children that get to have all the fun though; parents, teachers and various community groups have been invited to watch students participate in outdoor learning and participate themselves in activities they may have been missing out on since childhood.

The relationships with local community groups that have arisen from the Bush Block highlight the importance of these types of spaces and are testament to those who used their energy to pursue such a positive space for sustainability education.

Recognising the great work of local schools and preschools

Students undertake investigations and document what they think will happen

A student ventures down the wooden steps into the bush block

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Whitefriars Primary School (Woodville Park) – Sustainable Seekers shared their learning from the first YEL workshop with the whole school, which led to every class constructing and decorating a wicking bed to complement the raised garden beds and brighten up the paved areas around the school. Adults from the extended school community joined in by volunteering and donating seeds from their own gardens. After a lot of hard work removing weeds and preparing the ground, we look forward to seeing the completion of their sacred space garden in 2015.

St Michael’s College, Junior School (Beverley) – Students and parents helped plan and design a mini-wetland area adjacent to their productive garden. The school community is looking forward to the development of their kitchen space, so that they can cook more dishes using the vegetables they have grown in their garden.

West Beach Primary School – The Wipe Out Waste student group ran a Super Science Fair with climate change experiments and biodiversity activities in March that raised money to create a green tunnel in their native garden. The garden and natural playspace has been a multi-year project, incorporating elements that were voted on by the students during the consultation and design phase. This tranquil area now includes log seating, a dry creek bed, frog pond and trees and shrubs that have grown large enough to provide shaded areas to sit under.

Cowandilla Primary School – Increasing biodiversity within the school grounds has been a focus for Climate Change Action Group students this year. They audited animal life in the grounds (including overnight) to see the impact of their work, logging their results into the Atlas of Living Australia database, and mapping their action plan in the school’s Environment Management Plan. We visited the area where their frog pond will be constructed, and saw insect hotels that already provide specialised habitat niches, and great interest and engagement for other students as they learn about mini-beasts. Their story has been shared across the state in The Advertiser’s education feature in November.

St Joseph’s School (Tranmere) – The sustainability tree in the staff room has captured and recognised each small step that classes and individuals took on their journey to becoming more sustainable. This powerful visual tool will move into a public space for students and their families to share the stories of culture change that are occurring at the school and reflected at home.

For more detailed case studies, podcasts, videos and resources from other sites, visit www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/adelaidemtloftyranges and search for ‘Education’ then view the resources by theme.

Youth Environment Leaders making a real differenceOur Youth Environment Leaders (YEL) program celebrated 12 months of successful initiatives with student leaders and role models taken on bus tours in October and November to share their work. The tours were a wonderful opportunity to showcase their hands-on projects and promote the ways they influenced culture change towards more sustainable ways of living, both at school and at home.

Some of the highlights in the central region were:

A B

C D

E A) Decorated wicking beds at WhitefriarsB) St Michael’s board of design ideasC) Tour group looking at the tunnel at West BeachD) An insect hotel at CowandillaE) St Joseph’s sustainability tree

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www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/adelaidemtloftyranges

When starting to design a natural playspace for your school or preschool, it’s really valuable to include your students in the design process.

With this in mind there are several things to consider:

• familiarity with basic nature play principles

• catering for different types of play

• authentically involving children’s voice in the process

• managing, as opposed to eliminating, risk.

Once you have these at front of mind, you are ready to design/create a playspace for your site.

Let your creativity flow!One way to do this is with a mindmap.

First write up Peter Semple’s 10 basic principles of a natural play space:

1. sense of place

2. engage with the children

3. landform and natural features

4. greening and softening the space

5. sensory experiences: touch, taste, smell, hear, see

6. support local trades and suppliers

7. embrace risky play

8. incorporate multiple play styles

9. integrate with the wider landscape

10. comfort and accessibility.

Add Adam Bienenstock’s five natural elements:

1. logs

2. rocks/boulders

3. pathway loops

4. local plants

5. change of topography/mounding.

Then the five different types of play

1. physical: movement for its own sake (running, climbing, jumping)!

2. creative: designing, exploring, using imagination

3. constructive/exploratory: creating things; manipulative behaviours (e.g. handling, throwing, engaging with an object)

4. social: exploring interactions

5. reflective/quiet: time and space to reflect and think.

At a recent NRM Education natural playspaces workshop in the Barossa, participants were briefed on these principles, natural elements and the different types of play. They then broke up into school groups and used symbolic elements to begin the actual design process.

Several staff had worked with an NRM project officer ahead of the workshop to help students brainstorm ideas. These ideas were incorporated into the staff PD and helped inform the creative process at that point.

It’s a good idea to run the student input over several sessions, allowing the students’ ideas time to evolve, and asking them what sort of things and activities they consider the most fun in an outdoor playspace.

Running student workshops ahead of a staff PD helps elicit a list of discrete activities from the students, rather than asking them to spatially design the space, which some students struggle with.

Designing a playspace at a school or preschool requires consideration of relevant safety standards and guidelines. You should also refer to the DECD poisonous plants list and other sources to determine the suitability of plants.

There is a special nature play section on our website with case studies of what other schools are doing in this area, as well as access to funding for your project.

To keep up to date just register to receive our weekly e-digest at: www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/adelaidemtloftyranges/subscribe

Students can help staff design natural playspaces

An example mindmap for designing a natural playspace

Using symbolic elements to design a playspace at the workshop in the Barossa

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