HUB SPP  S2 2013 : ‘Sustainability and our Farmland Environment’ sessions

How can these resources – now in two sets– be used out of the Wimmera for discussions about sutainabililty and farming?

1  Using all the books – two sets 

At the Greening Australia PD day at Narrmbool  – Toolbox for Environmental Change, Hub SPP environmental educator, Jeanie Clark, provided a Sustainability and our Farmland Environment workshop using both sets of above resources made by St Joseph’s and Beulah PS for their SPPs.   The sessions for teachers and educators covered a holistic exploration of:

• the farming environment,
• definitions of sustainability,
• literacy/communication interpretation and discussion based on these resources,
• and a reflection about the learning.

The main PD aims were:

1 extend sustainability ideas into farming, especially for rural schools.
2 introduce ways for using picture books to learn Science and Sustainability
3 introduce the potential for Science, literacy, arts and Sustainability learning outcomes through the annual Science Talent Search primary level creative writing competition
4 showcase what children who live on farms can do in producing materials from their background

This PD was provided to:

8 PS teachers from Ballarat to Geelong schools
7 sustainability educators from western Victoria

2 Using a subset of books – about living things

A selection from the two sets of books ( St Josephs and Beulahs) were used for an in-class teacher PD session for a small primary school in a valley environment, Tawonga PS. The books were chosen on the theme ‘Living things in sustainabilitiy and our farmland Environments’ to fit the school’s curriculum needs for ‘living things’.  Hub SPP environmental educator, Jeanie Clark, provided activities which covered:

• the parts of the farmland environment,
• sustainability,
• with literacy/ communication interpretation and discussion based on the selection of ‘living things’ resources,
• and a reflection about the learning.

The main PD aims were to:

1 extend ideas of sustainability into concepts of farming
2 discover ways for using picture books to learn Science and Sustainability
3 become acquainted with the picture book farm – sustainability stories by farm children in western Victoria
4 develop an overview of the Science Talent Search creative writing competition (Science based picture books)

This PD was provided to the F-3 class teachers.

Read the full report  HUBSPP_S2_2013 learning story report

 

page last updated 12/2/2014