It is without a doubt that geography and civics & citizenship work hand-in-hand. Reynolds (2012) defines geography as “The investigation and understanding of the environmental and human characteristics of the places that make up our world”. I interpret this definition as investigating the community/world around me including the people in it. Although that was my interpretation, it could mean many different things to other people. Kriewaldt (2012) states that geographical education makes a lifelong contribution’s to individual understanding of the earth’s natural and built features and the environmental, social and economic processes that change them.
A sweet little video to introduce young students about how plants grow and how to maintain them, that links to their integrated topic;
The area of focus for this blog is the learning outcome for foundation to year two students; Local dimensions: Local environments and caring for the environment (ACARA, 2014). There are many kinds of integrated learning activities that can be carried out in regards to this learning outcome.
Inquiry Focus Question: How can I help look after my environment around me?
To encourage students to eat healthier and look after the world around them, why not carry out an integrated topic that requires them to grow and maintain their own vegetable garden. This program would involve students to learn about how growing their own fruits and vegetables looks after not only themselves but also the environment around them. There is potential for this integrated topic to co-inside with a very well known program, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program. The program’s goal is for students to learn how to grow, harvest, prepare and share seasonal food.
http://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/about-us/the-program
Although this program is along the same lines as what the integrated program is aiming to do, I want students to think about the environment and community around them as well as looking at healthy eating.
Kriewaldt (2012) states that young people’s views on the nature and importance of geography provide insights into their perceptions. Giving students this new perspective on where their fruit and vegetables come from, not just the supermarket! Helps students start thinking about how they can look after their community, and in this case their school community. Students would be given the opportunity to plant and maintain a veggie patch that they can grow healthy vegetables that they can use and share with their school community. This will allow young students to learn about how things grow, how they can look after their environment and where their fruits and vegetables come from.
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A very engaging and useful excursion that can be carried out along side this fun integrated topic with foundation to year two students is an excursion to the Royal Botanical gardens in Melbourne. Of course this excursion would be relevant to students who attend school in Victoria. The Royal Botanical gardens program offers many different programs that allow students to explore the environment around them and how they can protect that environment. The Royal Botanical Gardens (2015) has a pedagogical vision for their programs and as stated on their website; “Royal Botanic Gardens Education utilises the rich natural and cultural resources of RBG Melbourne and Cranbourne to provide opportunities to enliven and enhance the learning of students from kindergarten to tertiary”. The website also states that their programs have a close link to AusVELS and POLT’s (Principals of Learning & Teaching). I believe, an excursion like this would allow young students to have hands on approach to their environment and be able to experience sensory and visual learning.
http://sustainability.ceres.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/botanicgardens-logo.jpg
All these learning activities allow students to learn about Sustainability and civics and citizenship. It gives students opportunities to have hands on learning activities and having a veggie patch for young students can also fit in with many programs schools run. Whether that program is Cathy Walkers play-based learning or the CAFÉ/Daily 5 program, it gives students something to learn about, be responsible for and to think about how they can help maintain the environment around them, so that people in their community can also enjoy the environment too!
With hands on learning activities like maintaining a veggie patch, it can sometimes be hard to collect formal assessments of student learning. LDOnline (2015) has some informal forms of assessment that could be effective in assessing younger students during their integrated topic. Some informal forms that I felt would be appropriate for this integrated topic was documenting the students work with photographs and observation notes.
Another form of assessment that gets students to show how observant and engaged they were through out the integrated garden project by drawing a picture each time the class goes out to check on the plants. It is again shows the child’s learning and observations.
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Finally, one assessment I really like is when students tell you how they feel they went, and what they learnt! This can be recorded in so many different ways but if you provide students with work sheets where they colour in a smiley face on how they feel they went and they can record a one word sentence about what they have learnt.
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“The world isn’t in your maps and books….It’s out there!”
-J.R.R Tolkien
Refernces
- Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2014c). Australian curriculum: Humanities and social sciences: Civics and citizenship (v. 7.2) foundation to year 10 curriculum. Retrieved fromhttp://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level2\
- Gilbert, R. (2013). Assessment for student learning. In R. Gilbert & B. Hoepper (Eds.), Teaching humanities and social sciences: History, geography, economics and citizenship in the Australian curriculum (5th ed.). (pp. 96-114). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning
- Reynolds, R. (2009). Teaching studies of society & environment in the primary school. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand.
- Royal Botanic Gardens- Learn program (2015) Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved January 13, 2015, from http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/learn
- Taylor, T., Fahey, C., Kriewaldt, J., Boon, D. (2012) Place and Time-Exploration in Teaching Geography and History. Frenchs Forest;NSW; Pearson Australia.
- WETA (2015)LD Online- Assessments for Young Children. Washington, D.C. United States of America. Retrieved January 10, 2015, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6040/
Carla F Coutts- ESH360 Blog 
Hey Carla,
Well done on a great blog posting! I really like the theme of your blogs and the way they are set out with lots of colourful and engaging images. It makes them easy to read and aesthetically appealing. You have used a good range of relevant resources and references throughout, supporting your views and claims throughout. I love the video at the start of this blog. It would be so appropriate for young students and getting them engaged with and excited about the integrated topic. I also love the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program! Isn’t it a wonderful resource!? I am certainly very fond of the program and feel it is perfect for using in the classroom for teaching Geography and Sustainability education (not to mention all of the cross-curricular links!)
I think an excursion to the Botanical gardens is a fantastic idea! This would be a fun, hands-on learning experience for the students and what better way to get students engaging in authentic learning experiences outside the four walls of the classroom. Like your quote from J.R.R Tolkien so rightfully says, “The world isn’t in your maps and books….It’s out there!” so getting them outside exploring this natural environment is perfect.
In regards to assessment, you are very right in that, as it is a very hands-on learning experience, you are more likely to be engaging in formative forms of assessment such as photographs and observations. There are so many great opportunities to formally assess them too, as you say, getting them to draw pictures of the plants. You could also be formally assessing them as they write journal descriptions describing the plants in the vegetable patch and the changes over time as they continue to observe them.
Well done again on all of your great blogs, I have really enjoyed reading them.
Good luck with your submission!
Jess 🙂
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