Sustainability
Our Department of Education teachers have a range of skills and expertise to support you and your students. We can run programs for a single class through to a whole school, or for student groups such as environment teams or SRCs. For example:
- compost and/or worm farm workshops
- environmental leadership workshops
- insect/bee hotel workshops
- kitchen garden workshops
- waste management workshops
- support establishing native, cultural, kitchen or permaculture gardens
- facilitating audits such as waste, litter, biodiversity, water and transport
Science, geography
This program focuses on waste awareness and planning for waste minimisation. Students:
- consider the forms of waste produced by their school
- identify the forms of resource recovery that the school currently uses
- discuss waste minimisation strategies the school community could use
- participate in an audit of school waste
- brainstorm other forms of resource recovery available to the school community
Science, mathematics
Students gain an awareness of energy use throughout the school and plan for positive change. They audit electricity use throughout the school using hands-on science equipment. Students:
- measure light levels in various rooms and compare them to standards
- tally appliance numbers (e.g. computers, lights, fans) and estimate energy use, cost and greenhouse gas emission for a year at their school
- brainstorm positive action in order to reduce energy use and thus the school's environmental impact
Science, geography
This program focuses on awareness and action about litter in school grounds and the community. Students:
- survey and map litter throughout the school grounds
- consider what litter is and why people litter
- consider the impacts of litter on the environment
- begin planning action to reduce litter produced by their school
Science, geography
Students assess the biodiversity on their school grounds and consider ways to increase biodiversity. Students:
- survey vertebrates, invertebrates, and gardens
- assess habitat quality
- learn how to increase habitat and considering the advantage of plant layers
- map significant areas, such as gardens, remnant bush, nest sites and areas of erosion
Additionally, students can be supported in one of the following:
- devise a bird list for the school
- start a digital herbarium for the school
- link narrative to a recount or school map
- develop an action plan for improving the school's biodiversity
- commence a weed assessment of the school and surrounding environment