Big questions leading to action in a school

These are the 'big questions' classes at one of our schools are investigating as a result of the sustainable communities through kai project.  Classes have been exploring the big picture and now these questions are focusing the action and choices students are making.

How do the choices that we make in the food that we eat affect the environment?
Should we believe everything that we see and hear in advertisements?

Will what we consume today affect our world in the future?

What effect would there be on our community if we reduce food wastage?

How do the choices we make about the food we eat affect our community? 

What role do we have at our school in thinking globally and eating locally? 

How do the choices we make locally about the food we eat affect us globally?

How can we be a zero waste school?

How can we reduce non recyclable packaging in our school and community?

How do the choices I make about food effect me and the world around me?

What role do we play in the production, consumption and reduction of food and its waste?

What effect does waste have on our lives?

How can we grow and share food in our community so we all have enough?

What can we do to help lower the amount of money that our community spends on fruit and vegies? 

Term 3 Event

Kia ora

In between fantastic visits to your schools and learning more about what you are doing in this project we have planned a hui for Monday 5th August (Week 2 term 3).

This is to collaboratively create the feedback on the stories that are a result of my current visits. I'm hoping that all the Enviroschools facilitators will be there and any of you wonderful teachers who would like to participate.

The benefits will be the time and space for you to reflect on what you have been doing and learn from what others are doing in this project. We are still working on the budget and so there maybe some support available if you wish to attend this day.

Please let me know if you are interested soon!

Research Process 5 - Corn Fritters and Salsa at the Kai Festival

The students in this class decided to make corn fritters and salsa to go with them. Way back last year they thought that they would grow the corn for the festival and that fritters made from that corn would be their dish. We are Carla, Edward and Raukura and there are two things that stand out for us from our festival experiences.

The first is with the help of Mr K we made a hydroponics unit for inside the classroom out of plastic drink bottles. This was to grow the herbs for the salsa and the fritters. We also grew some herbs in our class garden and the school hydroponics unit. We had to experiment with different ways to stop the algae growing on the bottles and we found that wrapping paper around the bottle was the best thing to do this. We grew coriander in our hydroponics in the classroom.

The other thing that we remember is making the robots out of the tins cans. Well you see the sweet corn didn’t grow as well as we thought because it was a bit dry this year and so we had to make our fritters using tinned corn. But we made these robots using the cans to make up the robot. We were recycling the cans.

In our inquiry books we did labels for our food items, we googled a recipe for the salsa and we made posters to advertise the festival. Since the festival we have brainstormed how we should use the money and reviewed the jobs at the festival.

Some thoughts from each of us:

Carla

I haven’t really changed anything at home since we started doing the things for the festival. I have a small garden at home.

I hadn’t done experiments before we did this so the most significant thing for me was the experiments. I think I might get to use them again as we are doing the ecological island and there is going to be a science room on the island. I would call my story The Kai Festival.

Ed

The change for me at home was that I helped my Poppa to make some hydroponics. He’s got a garden and he’s got like a little hydroponics, a weed sprayer, his own compost too, and a hot house, two hot houses. Poppa and I worked together on this we like plant tomatoes. He even planted a tomato the size of his hand. The difference for is like that my Poppa isn’t, hasn’t really made hydroponics before and he hasn’t really heard of it only on the TV guide.

The tin can plan was really significant for me and hydroponics in the room was something new. From here I think we could get more cans and make a skink kingdom on the ecological island. We could vote for the best skink playground.

I would call my story The Experience of the Kai Festival.

Raukura

I don’t know if there is a change for me at home I have a garden at home and I water it every morning. Actually I do have a change I had a change I knew that I had to water my gardens every day otherwise if I didn’t they would eventually they would. I have these and they are going really well and they’re called guava’s growing well close to the lemon –sometimes I think they are a couple but sometimes I think they are sharing roots to be healthy.

The most significant thing for me has been the Green Team and the thinking about the animals for the Ecological Island. We are thinking whether to put an arch bridge over it or digging underneath it and putting glass so that we can see, not letting us drown or anything.

I think that we are thinking about the animals that will eat the plants on the island and if other classes had cans left over we could plant animal food in the cans and then put on the ecological island. It need lost of plants.

An innovative thing we have been doing is thinking about hiding from predators and camouflage on the island.

I would call my story Our Kai Festival.

Story number	006
Title	Corn Fritters and Salsa
Date	10-12 April 2013
Person recording	Faye
Storyteller(s)	Students Carla aged 8 (f), Edward aged 8 (m), Raukura aged 8 (f)
Feedback Faye	d) Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality Students in this story are beginning to experience some of the ideas embodied in sustainability. For example they plan to use their own corn for their dish at the festival but learn along the way that seasonal cycles can dictate the quality of the harvest. Then they experience the need for adaptability and flexibility to change when the corn harvest doesn’t eventuate as planned. In this case they adapt by using another source - the tinned corn. The opportunity from the tins has been to grow plants for the ecological island and have some fun with making robots, thus re-using a resource. I am wondering about the degree to which students understand what they have done includes these aspects of sustainability?
Feedback Robyn	d) Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality In this story I feel that the students are trying to make sense of all these things happening. I think that they could be on the cusp of seeing the connections between the different projects that they are involved in – but they are not there yet.
Feedback Wendy	d) Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality This story describes some fantastic learning – lots of problem solving, testing, hypothesising, and research.  The fact they recognised they had created waste through using cans, and then took action to create something from that waste shows they are making links and deepening their understanding of sustainability.  The can robots was a very creative and positive response to what could have been a sad situation – unsuccessful corn growing.  There is clearly a lot of transfer of gardening skills and interest between home and school with a number of students commenting on their own gardens.

Research Process 4 -A Story

Our names are Anna, Bridget and Arthur we are year 5 and 6 students. Today we are starting the first day of our environmental elective – this means that one day a week we come to the Living Room for our learning with Mrs Green our teacher.

Last term we started learning about sustainable communities through kai as part of our non-elective class programme. We learnt about what past students had done in the Living Room. This included a ‘wish list’ of ideas and possible projects that might still happen in the living room and the sustainable backyard.

We explored what sustainability, community and tikanga mean for us and we used thinking skills and strategies to help us. We also recorded our ideas in a journal. We also listened to stories that Mrs Green shared with us and we went through a process of deciding what to do with the apples from the tree in the sustainable backyard. Students from Room 23 wrote us letters as they had noticed the apples were on the ground and rotting. We decided to collect the apples that were still good and share them with room 23.

We realised that we needed to have a plan for the food that we grow in our garden – this includes knowing what to plant and when so that we can harvest and make good use of the produce. We have been investigating which plants are good to grow in our area. We also made notes about our favourite and not so favourite vegetables. Some of us have even tried new vegetables that we hadn’t eaten before such as courgettes.

This last term the things that have made the biggest difference are learning about sustainability. For me (Anna) Mrs Green telling us her story about her holiday to the Barrier reef has helped me to understand. It changed the way I think about sustainability. I used to think it was, well I didn’t really understand I used it but I didn’t know what it was. I feel more confident now.

I (Bridget) found the activity Sustainability – what is it? really interesting. I told Mum about what sustainability is and she got really interested.

I (Arthur) think that the ‘wish list’ is a really important thing because the good ideas from the past shouldn’t be left out just because they didn’t get done. I think it is important that ideas [from others] are kept.

Story number	001
Title	Sustainable communities and kai - Change in the Living Room
Date	10-12 April 2013
Person recording	Faye
Storyteller(s)	Anna (9), Bridget (9), Arthur (10) A large urban primary school Students have elective classes once a week in EfS
Feedback Faye	d) Developing the concept of sustainability to reality Students are articulating they have a better understanding of sustainability. While the notion of ‘caring for the environment’ is still quite strong they are starting to explore the interaction between natural processes in their immediate environment such as the vegetable garden, the hens and beehive with their social and cultural setting. I think they are beginning to experience that sustainability is less about definitive ‘solutions’ to fix ‘problems’ and more about multi-dimensional relationships that intermingle with each other. The scope for what is ‘sustainability’ at this school is broadening.
Feedback Robyn	d) Developing the concept of sustainability to reality What I see as significant in this story is the depth of learning about quite complex concepts (sustainability and community). This is helping to equip the students with a sound platform for making decisions as they move towards taking action (action learning cycle).
Feedback Wendy	d) Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality The students are drawing from a number of circumstances, relationships, and stories to create a big picture of sustainability.  The teacher’s experience, the apples being left to rot, and the wish list from years prior shows there is a depth to this learning and they are making connections.
Key ideas the project is working on – live, learn and earn in and with our communities	a)     Building community and enabling action b)     Contributing to needs in our community – healthy, affordable food, local employment, past food practices, celebrating diversity of cultures, reconnecting (land, neighbours) c)     Connection with local food projects d)    Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality e)     innovation

Research Process 3 - Feedback in MSC

Last week I outlined the steps we go through to get to be able to write a story. During our visits in June and July we will be gathering what we need to write a story or two from your place.

The writing of the story is really only the start of the process. Once it has been written a range of people comment on how the story exemplifies or shows connection to the outcomes of our project. For this trial Robyn, Wendy Barry from WWF and I completed the 'feedback' to participants via their stories.

The purpose of this feedback is two fold:

1. For the participants or 'storytellers' to reflect on how others perceive the work being done for Sustainable Communities Through Kai.
2. For you to read the stories from other schools and reflect on the ways you are working towards the project outcomes.

In the revised timeline and stages I have indicated we will be holding a collective 'feedback' day in term 3 based on the stories we will develop from the visits this term. We did not budget for this day to include teacher release and so if you would like to participate you would need to ask for school support. If you would like to be part of the feedback day please let me know it would be great to have you involved.

Research Process 2 - Data gathering for MSC

The following covers the key actions that will happen with respect to the visits for this term:

1. Visit from Faye and Facilitator in either week 6 or week 9 Term 2.
2. Meet with two groups of 2-3 students and the lead teacher for between 30-40 minutes each group (i.e. 3 x 40 minute discussions).
3. Prior to meeting with students Faye and Facilitator meets with the lead teacher for a ‘background catch-up’ and then has a more formal discussion/interview after speaking with the students.
4. Faye and/or the Facilitator drafts a ‘story’ generated from the three separate discussions.
5. Draft story is emailed back to lead teacher for accuracy check – during term 2 holidays.
6. All stories are reviewed and discussed – week 2 of Term 3 to consider most significant change.
7. If you would like to be part of this process please discuss with Faye during the visit in term 2.
8. Reviewed stories are emailed back to teachers and students (after week 2 of term 3 hopefully around week 4).
9. Faye analyses and comments on findings across all stories (during remainder of term 3 looking to report to the Tindall Foundation, WWF and Enviroschools Foundation by mid August).
10. If all participants agree stories posted on the blog (pseudonym’s are used).
11. Facilitators gather a further story during term 3 with their school.
12. Week 2 Term 4 final hui for the project.