Educating Future Generations with RACV and Landcare
Students from Noble Park English Language School, Keysborough Secondary College and Spring Parks Primary School have enjoyed action packed visits to the Gould League Environmental Sustainability Education Centre as part of the Educating Future Generations Project funded by the RACV in partnership with Landcare Australia.
Through fun, hands-on activities, the students learnt about healthy soil and composting and experienced a minibeast’s eye view of life in the Gould League’s famous Incredible Shrinking Machine. They encountered a world of minibeasts that call native gardens home, and discovered the wealth of life hidden inside Common Tussock Grass in ‘Pull-Apart-A-Poa’. They discussed different habitat and food plants and their roles in gardens, propagated Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra) seeds, and learnt to identify plants by exploring different plant parts under the microscope and using a dichotomous key.
Spring Parks Primary School students ready to plant their
seedlings for their new Educating Future Generations
indigenous habitat garden
Spring Parks Primary School students were first off the mark to create their own native habitat garden planting a great selection of locally native plants from Friends of Braeside Park Nursery at a full day planting workshop at their school. Keysborough Secondary College and Noble Park English Language School have also enjoyed their workshops this term, which include student planning sessions to ensure processes are in place to look after the garden and monitor its growth.
The schools also receive a Gould League Project Kit, and a gardening starter kit including kids’ gardening gloves, buckets, and watering cans. The project aims to equip the students and teachers with the motivation, skills and resources to plant and maintain a locally native habitat garden within their schoolgrounds, and to share these skills with their families and communities.
