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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Find out about the history of the foods and plants that were traditionally cultivated in the local community. |
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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Discuss what makes a garden flourish, including what qualities a great gardener would have. |
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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Select appropriate plant species for the location: microclimate, soil type, soil pH, etc. |
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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Discuss the benefit of perennials over annual plants. |
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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Learn when to harvest different types of produce from the garden. |
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Growing food |
Growing food the permaculture way |
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Read the book "Farmer Phil’s Permaculture: the original permaculture children’s book" and discuss. |
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My community |
Group decision making |
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Observe a group making a (sociocratic) decision, then ask did everyone get a voice? Was it fair? |
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My community |
Group decision making |
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Make a group decision in different ways, compare and contrast e.g. democratic voting (as in first past the post democracy), consent decision making process (as practiced in sociocracy), whoever speaks first/loudest etc. |
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My community |
Group decision making |
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Connect with each other before making a group decision (play a collective game, sing a song together holding hands, etc). |
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My community |
Group decision making |
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Compare making decisions in small groups and large groups. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Turn over a log or stone to find mycellium and if possible look at it under a microscope or magnifying glass. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Identify one edible and one poisonous mushroom. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Act out the three different roles that fungi play in the woods (different species have different roles). Some are recyclers - decomposing dead matter and making the nutrients available to other species. Others are parasites - eating living trees. Others are plant-friends (mycorrhizal) and are feeding the plants with nutrients whilst the plants also feed them. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Learn that (mycorrhizal) fungi are the wood wide web - they help distribute nutrients (taking nutrients to where they are needed) and enable trees to communicate with others (that are far away). |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Learn that a mushroom is like an apple on a tree - it is the fruit of the living organism, the majority of which is under the ground as mycellium. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Learn that different fungi have different ways of living e.g. 'mycorrhizal' fungi feed plants and get their food from plants; parasites eat living plants; recyclers eat dead matter. |
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The animal, fungus and bacteria kingdoms |
Fungi: parasites, recyclers and the wood wide web |
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Learn that mycorrhizal fungi are so important to plants that plants actually feed them. |
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Using nature's gifts wisely |
Fossil fuels, climate change and peak oil |
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Make a stop-motion animation or a time-lapse video about climate change. |
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Using nature's gifts wisely |
Fossil fuels, climate change and peak oil |
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Go through the classroom and chart or graph visually the materials that different items are made of - to see how many are made out of plastics using fossil fuels. |
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Using nature's gifts wisely |
Fossil fuels, climate change and peak oil |
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Write a poem or essay from the perspective of a prehistoric forest that has turned into oil and then plastic, and then what happens? |
