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