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Gardens in the school grounds or the local community
are exciting learning environments for students
at all levels and across the curriculum. School
gardens, whether vegetable, indigenous or wetland
can provide opportunities for learning experiences
focussed on food and farming, where our food comes
from, sustainable production of food, environmental
management, and the connection each of us has
with the land.
LandLearn
provides activities and resources to support learning
in the classroom and in different outside environments.
LandLearn encourages integrated curriculum about
farming for food and fibre production to increase
students' understanding and valuing of agriculture
and its contribution to them as individuals, to
the community and to the nation - socially, economically
and environmentally.
Some
suggestions for integrated curriculum outcomes
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Students
plan and design, build, prepare and plant,
harvest, cook and eat a vegetable garden in
the school grounds or at a community garden
site and / or at home. Through this experience
and the associated activities they can achieve
personal, social and environmental learning. |
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Cross-curricula projects with Food Technology,
SOSE, Arts and English can enhance student
understanding, and provide cultural learnings
by investigating foods of different cultures,
how it is cooked, and associated traditions
and customs. Visit markets, localities associated
with foods of different cultures, eg. Victoria
Street in Richmond and Abbotsford. |
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Students
with varying interests, skills and experiences
can be catered for, as many activities can
be explored in depth while other students
will learn from the practical experiences. |
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Create
and maintain a kitchen garden for Food Technology
classes - grow herbs and specialist or unusual
vegetables. |
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Explore
the concepts and principles of garden design,
propagation, plant functions and systems.
Investigate the principles of permaculture. |
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Experiment
with different growing conditions. Extend
the research to look at how farmers manage
such conditions. |
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Undertake classroom or lab experiments and
then conduct similar experiments in the garden. |
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Investigate
soils, make and use compost (introduce as
part of waste management at the school), build
worm farms. Simple activities can be linked
to more complex, eg. a worm farm in a jar
lets students investigate worms more closely
than in a compost bin. |
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Use
the activities in a cross-age or buddy program
with a lower primary level grade. |
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Visit
other gardens as part of the program, eg.
the Children's and Kitchen Gardens at Royal
Botanic Gardens, a local nursery, a market
garden, a community garden site. |
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Make
use of and support the local Agricultural
Show. Encourage students to enter the cooking
sections or their garden produce and to go
and look at other entries. |
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Make
it practical, fun and interactive .Take the
students on a journey of exploration from
their local vegie garden to Victoria's food
and fibre production. |
Similar suggestions
apply to gardens focussed on other themes
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Indigenous species, Australian plants for
bush foods, flowers, butterfly and bird gardens,
mini crops, revegetation areas in the community
all enhance the learning enhance the learning
environments around the school. |
Fieldwork
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Make
it more than a day out! Build a topic around
the fieldwork . investigate "beyond the farm
gate". |
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Visit
local farms, Petty's Orchard, Gulf Station,
Haining's Farm, landcare sites, - there are
other options in different areas of the state.
See http://www.landlearn.net.au > fieldwork
for more suggestions and contact details. |
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Ask
LandLearn staff about the fieldwork available
from LandLearn. â Students can create "virtual
fieldtrips" on PowerPoint or websites to share
their learning with others. |
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Include
agriculture themes in at least some of the
school's camps program. Visit farms, investigate
the land use, food and fibre production, environmental
management in the region around the camp.
Consider "Rural Experience" as a camp theme.
See the next page for more about Teaching
Farms. |
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Develop
a partnership with a local landcare or "friends
of" group to share community projects. |
Resources
- some suggestions
This list refers to a few of the many resources
available. More detailed and topic specific lists
are provided in LandLearn curriculum resources
and in the resources available from other education
programs. If teachers and students know of other
excellent resources we can add to the lists, please
pass the information on to LandLearn staff and
share your good ideas with other teachers.
Gardens
and Gardening
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Jackie
French (1999) How to Guzzle your Garden.
Angus & Robertson |
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Alan
Gilbert (2003) No Dig Gardening. ABC
Books |
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Peter
Grant (2003) Habitat Garden. ABC Books |
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Meredith
Kirton (2003) Dig - Modern Australian Gardening.
Murdoch Books |
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Annette
McFarlane (2002) Organic Vegetable Gardening.
ABC Books |
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Melissa
McGroarty & Noelle Weatherley (1993) Growing
into Gardening. Hyland House |
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Wendy
van Dok (2002) The Water-efficient Garden.
A guide to sustainable landscaping in Australia.
Water-efficient Gardenscapes |
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(2002)
Yates Garden Guide. Harper Collins |
Web quest on Aboriginal
use of plants http://science.uniserve.edu.au/school/quests/nativeplants.html
Agriculture
- land management, systems and production of food
and fibre
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Bob
Brown et al. (2004) Dynamic Agriculture
Years 7 - 10. McGraw-Hill |
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John
Butler & Ray Pask (2000) 'Using the land'
in Heineman Geography Links 1, Chapter
5. Heineman |
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Niranjan
Casinader et al. (1998) 'Agriculture 2050:
A Future Problem Solving Approach' in A
Place for Geography Book 3, Chapter 5.
Longman |
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Anne
Clark (2003) Senior Australian Agriculture
3rd Edition. Pascal Press |
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Dianne
Hanna & Ann Fagan (2001) Agriculture and
Land Management Fieldwork Kit. Department
of Natural Resources & Environment |
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Susan
Jackson (Various dates) Farm Books for
Children. (12 in the series, eg. Farms,
Dairy Cows, A Sheepdog, A Boom Sprayer, Wheat,
Shearing Time.) Avalon Books |
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S.
Platt (2002) How to plan wildlife landscapes:
a guide for community organisations. Department
of Natural Resources & Environment |
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Julianne
Sharp (1997) Sustainable Agriculture -
Protecting our Heartland. GTAV, DNRE,
MDBC |
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The
Workboot Series (Various dates) Student books
include Vegetables, Dairy, Honey, Rice,
Timber, Wheat, Wool. Teacher Resource
Kits include Dairy, Honey, Timber, Wheat,
Wool. The Kondinin Group |
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(2004)
LandLearn Resource Booklets CD. Department
of Primary Industries |
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(1998)
Catchment Education Resource Book.
Department of Natural Resources & Environment |
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Past
editions of this Newsletter are available
on the website: http://www.landlearn.net.au.
They include useful activities and resources.
Other LandLearn curriculum resources cover
relevant themes such as - soil science, worms
and composting, plant science, bush foods,
and exploring biodiversity in different landscapes.
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Teaching farms PD
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