Environmental School Projects at Rosalie Primary

For many years Rosalie Primary School has had a strong focus on educating students about environmental issues. Teacher Tim Yates spoke to Julia on behalf of Auspen to get an understanding of how these projects came about and what impact they have had on the school community.

Julia: Does the school have a formal policy about environmental education or have projects been driven by individual teachers?

Tim: The programmes have all evolved over the years as individual teachers introduce ideas they are willing to run with. There are three teachers on our staff at present who are the main stays of the projects. The environmental programme does feature in the School Development Plan and does receive some funding through the Science Budget. There have been two documents produced that describe the approach we have taken. There is no well developed integrated programme that runs throughout the school. Our latest project, solar panels, is our first attempt at developing a programme that covers all years with a range of activities that are done either in first term or fourth term.

Julia: How much parental support is there for environmental education at the school? Is that support increasing?

Tim: Parent support is always there for these types of programmes. The chooks have a roster of parents who are responsible for feeding on weekends and holidays. The Miling Tree Planting Camp has an army of 12 parents who travel away with the students for a four day camp. The Solar Panel Project had a parent as the real driving force with regards to funding proposals, research and installation. The parents are always very willing to part with their money when children set up produce stalls periodically to sell their stuff.

Julia: Can you describe some of the major environmental projects at your school and what ages are involved?

Tim: HERB GARDEN: A new project involving the Pre-Primary and Year4/5 classes. It is in a sunken garden area and will be developed on a quadrant basis.

THE CHOOKS:- The Year 3 class looks after these and there has been a focus on egg producing and exhibiting the best birds in the Royal Show each year. The project endeavours to be self funded.

TREE PLANTING:- The Year 4/5 and Year 5 classes travel with the 3 200 salt bush they’ve grown from seed to Miling, a small wheat belt town 2.5 hours north-east of Perth.

RECYCLING PAPER AND CARBOARD:- The Year 5 class is at the head of this but the whole school is involved in this aspect.

As a sidelight to this, the Year 5 teacher collects photocopy paper that has only had one side used from a couple of institutions and it is put through our copier for activity sheets.

VEGIE PATCH:- The Year 4/5 class is the major user and the Year 5 class has a bed that they use. The Year 4/5’s sell produce to raise funds for seedlings and manure. One of the crops is turned into Beetroot Chutney and it has a loyal band of buyers now who can’t wait to stock up on the next batch. There is a marketing element to this project.

SOLAR PANELS:- As mentioned before this is the one programme where the whole school agreed to be involved. Four resource files were made; PP/1, 2/3, 4/5 and 6/7, with a range of different solar activities. It was organised so that the students would not repeat an activity or if they did, the degree of complexity would have been upped to match the age. The solar oven idea is a good example, from melting iceblocks early on to a more sophisticated model able to cook damper in the later years. There is also a public education aspect to this with the panels feeding into a easily read display on how much energy is being generated, the cost savings and the reduction in CO2 emissions all featured on the web and in the school’s office.

THE ORCHARD:- Each class was responsible for planting a fruit tree around the school. The idea was they were to look after it and do something with the produce. This project has not worked as planned.

FROG POND:- This project has just been rejuvenated and the pond made over. It had become an eye-sore and was not interesting or engaging. Our Year 1 teacher was very interested in doing up the pond and had cleared it out with a group of parents but then got a PEAC teaching appointment. She still wanted to see it through so made it one of her courses and used us as the site. It worked a treat and her students had a ball doing it, learnt so much and created a great deal of interest from our children. The Year 4/5 class had been studying frogs and raising them from taddy stage and this gave us the perfect environment to release our youngsters.

Julia: In your opinion what have been the most successful projects for generating student enthusiasm and learning opportunities. Why?

Tim: Any project that has been implemented by the teacher who had the idea has worked very well. So for our school the chooks, the tree planting and the vegie patch have worked best because they are tended by the teachers who did the hard slog of setting them up.

The Solar Panel programme has the potential but only if there is a Solar Energy Celebratory Day where everyone is committed to having to come up with an activity to show off.

Julia: To what extent are these projects integrated into classroom lessons eg. English, Science etc.

Tim: That depends on the teacher.

With the Vegie Patch Project I don’t do a detailed integration into the curriculum. I have taken the approach of making it like a club type of activity. The emphasis is on doing it for the intrinsic reward of growing your own produce and then getting the enjoyment of selling it all off. Learning is more from incidental chatting, observing and doing than on a more formal learning approach.

The Miling Tree planting is a different kettle of fish. It is an integral part of our Semester 1 Science Programme and many lessons are devoted to learning about the landscape, the hydrology of that landscape and the associated problems and then the reasons for doing what we do and the effects that has in the system.

The Chooks have a similar approach. Life cycles, animal care, health and safety, marketing are all aspects that the students are introduced to by their teacher.

Julia: What advice would you give to teachers who are keen to involve their students in taking positive steps to protect the environment and stop global warming?

Tim: If you’re interested in a project go for it. Your lead may inspire others to join with you or start their own project. If others are not really interested that’s fine just make the difference yourself. Don’t necessarily think you have to involve the whole school. There is that lovely Paul Kelly song that has the line ‘From little things big things grow’. If you are more driven than that then go for it. As long as you are willing to do the driving and organising, others will come on board but with varying degrees of passion and commitment. I have always taken the approach of making sure I have exposed the students in my class to the passion I have for gardening and the environment and the idea that they can make a difference by acting and doing.

Julia: Global warming is a topic that can be overwhelming for adults let alone kids. What is your strategy for keeping student motivation high?

Tim: Having a range of different activities and not banging on about the ‘woe is the world’ aspect to this issue. We have taken the approach: This is what we are doing to our world at the moment, so what can I do to make my impact smaller and do my bit to help the planet out. That idea of Think Global when you Act Local is a very important one.

Julia: Do you have any favourite books, websites or groups you would recommend to teachers as valuable resources in environmental education?

Tim: No one book, website or group. It depends on the project you want to implement and then it all seems to follow from there. There are some inspiring teachers out there. Our PEAC teacher for one is really great and I have just been reading about the teacher from Churchlands Primary who has won yet another award for her work in developing an environmental programme at her school. It is just a matter of tapping into these resources and it seems to flow from there.

Julia: As a teacher and environmental educator how do you stay motivated?

Tim: By not making it too big and involving too many people. We have found things that we love doing and just concentrate on that. You are then not overstretching yourself and can do the bits and pieces you like really well. If as a by-product of this, others get involved, that’s terrific. The main motivator is however, the students themselves. Each new group has seen what goes on and who does it as they come up through the years and they seem to be able to re-invigorate you when they ask, “Are we going to do the ……. this year?” Also seeing or reading about what others are up to I find gives me the jolt to have a go at a project I’ve been mulling over to do but not got round to getting organised.

Julia: You have run some very interesting projects here. If teachers wanted to get more information about how to run a similar project at their school how do they get in touch?

Tim: Just get on the phone and have a chat or arrange a visit. There is also an incredible group of mum’s at North Cottesloe Primary who really have started to mobilise that community and they are looking to get a network of people who are interested and doing environmental work in schools and in the local community together on a email database to keep people in touch with what’s going on, even arranging get togethers to share ideas etc.

Tags: gardens, school projects
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