Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes	Part C: Create a Plan
10 minutes	Part D: Evaluate the Plan
15 minutes	Part E: Sharing Idea
5 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

For students who have completed the previous lesson: Begin the lesson by recapping the premise of permaculture design. Invite students to share their understanding of permaculture through a brief class discussion. Use this as an opportunity to clarify the following:

Permaculture is a set of agriculture and social design principles that aim to create a more sustainable society.
Permaculture creates designed solutions for how we grow the food and fibre for the products in our everyday lives, so that they better catch and use energy, manage water and build communities.
Permaculture is based on three core ethics; 1. fair share, 2. people care, and 3. earth care.
12 principles shape a permaculture approach to design.

For students who haven't completed the previous lesson: Begin by inviting students to share what they already know about permaculture, recording their ideas on the board. As you do, explain to students that it is fine if they don't know anything about permaculture; in this lesson, they will explore permaculture by developing a design to address a school need using permaculture.

Explain that permaculture is a set of agriculture and social design principles that aim to create a more sustainable society. Permaculture creates designed solutions for how we grow the food and fibre for the products in our everyday lives, so that they better catch and use energy, manage water and build communities.

Distribute copies of the Permaculture Ethics And Principles worksheet and invite students to read through the worksheet. Students should record notes in response to the following:

What is interesting or surprising about this information?
What vocabulary is unclear or unfamiliar?
What questions do I have about this information?

You could also watch the following clip with students:

How Can Permaculture Change the World? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inTNaAgtX80)

Part B: Identifying School Needs

For students who have completed the previous lesson:

Distribute three sticky notes (or small pieces of scrap paper) to each student. Invite students to return to the results of the needs assessment they conducted in the previous lesson. Each student should look at the needs they identified and select the two needs that they identify as being the most popular. Invite students to write their selected two needs on the sticky notes (one on each note). They should then select one need that they find the most interesting or unexpected and write this on the third sticky note. You can then invite students up and place their sticky notes on the board in an orderly fashion (or if you are using scrap paper, create a space on the floor or on a large table and invite students to stand around the space, placing their notes on the floor or table).
You can then work with students to group these needs according to themes (you could use the ones identified in the previous lesson; Food, Waste, Energy, and Community, or you could create your own). Work with students to identify where there are multiple, similar needs that can be grouped together, and discard duplicates ensuring that you have a range of unique needs.
Once this collective compiling of data is complete, it's time for students to think about what needs they would be interested in creating a solution for using the ethics and principles of permaculture. Students should create working groups based on their interests. Alternatively, the teacher can assign students into working groups to address different needs, or the class can work in groups to address one need.

For students who haven't completed the previous lesson:

Explain to students that the first task in developing a design to address a school need using permaculture is to identify a need their school has.
Break the class into groups of three or four students and distribute one copy of the Identifying School Needs worksheet to each group. Invite each group to choose one of the ‘needs’ listed, thinking critically about what they believe their school needs, and how their school could be improved. Students may edit these needs to better suit their school context. Students should work together to discuss and record their thoughts on the worksheet.
Once complete, invite students to share their ideas with the class, recording key points on the board. Students should create working groups based on the need they are personally interested in. Alternatively, the teacher can assign students into working groups to address different needs, or the class can work in groups to address one need.

Part C: Create a Plan

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now work in groups to come with an idea in response to the need they are focusing on. Explain to students that they need to address the following question by participating in a group brain-writing challenge: “What opportunities can you see for a project that will address this need?”

If there are specific criteria that you need to put in place for the class based on your location, for example, an area of the school grounds that the design should be created for, explain this to the class, writing these considerations on the board. You will also need to check with your principal and/or gardener about specific criteria and site location. If you are planning to complete following lessons in this unit, explain to students that they will have the opportunity to explore the site in detail in a later lesson.

Invite students to arrange the classroom furniture so they are comfortable enough to think expansively and creatively.

Explain to students that they will work in their groups to come up with ideas for addressing the need they are focusing on. Students will participate in a brain-writing activity to begin this ideation phase.

The brain-writing process could be run like this:

Break the class into groups of four or five
Give each student a copy of Brain-writing Sheet (one half for each student) and a pen
The brain-writing activity will run for five minutes (you can use this stopwatch to keep time)
Each student will have one minute to write down some rough ideas in response to the question on their piece of paper
At the end of one minute, the pieces of paper are passed on to someone else who reads it silently and then adds their own ideas to the page. This process is repeated until everyone has had a chance to add to each original piece of paper.

Step 2.

Once the brain-writing challenge is complete, ask each group to spend five minutes viewing and discussing their list of ideas.

Invite each student to nominate their favourite ideas by:

Drawing a star next to the idea they think is the most creative
Drawing a smiley face next to the idea that they like best

Each group then needs to reach a consensus about the idea they would like to pursue. It would be useful to keep a record of all the ideas generated through the brain-writing process in order to return to in case the idea they have chosen needs to be amended.

Step 3.

Distribute one copy of the Student Worksheet to each student. Students can then use this worksheet to figure out some of the details of their project idea - groups need to complete the table and record the permaculture principles that will be incorporated into their plan.

Part D: Evaluate the Plan

Step 1.

Now, invite students to evaluate their group’s design idea using the 'Compass Points' thinking routine. Invite students to work individually, but guide them through the routine as a class.

Invite students to draw a compass in their workbooks and label each point N, E, S, and W. Explain that in this activity, each letter stands for a different way of looking at an idea. Begin with E and step students through the routine in the following sequence.

E = Excited
Invite students to think about what they find exciting about their idea, and to write it down next to the E point of the compass.
W = Worrisome
What is worrisome about the idea? Are there aspects of it that make you concerned? Write them down next to the W point of the compass.
N = Need to Know
What else do you need to know or find out about this idea? What information will help you to move forward with it? Write down your questions next to the N point of the compass.
S = Stance or Suggestion
What is your current stance or opinion on the idea? What is the next step you need to take to move forward with it? Write your thoughts down next to the W point of the compass.

Step 2.

Invite students to get back into their groups to share their thoughts and questions from the compass points. Questions students may need to think about before proceeding with their design may include:

Are there any issues that you need to work out before making your design? What amendments should we make?
Do you need more information about anything related to this project? How can you find out this information?
What about the idea that makes you most excited? How will you communicate this so that others also get excited about it?

Part E: Sharing Idea

Step 1.

Explain to students that they now need to create a short presentation that includes the following information:

Details about the need the idea aims to address
An overview of the idea (e.g. what will you do to address the need?)
Information about the permaculture principles and ethics addressed through the idea
Any other relevant information.

If you are planning on completing the following lesson, you can explain to students that in this lesson they will develop the details around their ideas, such as maps and diagrams; these do not need to be included in the one-page briefing document.

Step 2.

Groups can share their ideas with the class. Encourage groups to invite feedback on their ideas and to be open to incorporating feedback in order to improve designs.

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Students could work in their groups to use copies of this Feedback Sheet (cut in half) to provide feedback, returning the sheet to the presenting groups following their presentation. Each group should keep their returned feedback sheets to improve and amend their project ideas.

For students continuing on with the following lesson: The feedback sheets will be referred to in the next lesson.
For students not completing the following lesson: Allow groups a few minutes to incorporate feedback into their plans.

Reflection

Invite students to now work independently, thinking about their learning from this lesson and responding to the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What ideas and information presented in this lesson were CONNECTED to what you already knew?
What new ideas did you get that EXTENDED your thinking?
What is still CHALLENGING or confusing for you? What questions do you now have?

Differentiated Learning

Extension: If students finish researching their presentations early, they can begin collecting some of the materials they will need to create drawings and maps. If you are planning on completing some or all of the remaining lessons in this unit, these can be used in this lesson.

Provisions for Learning Support: Students who require extra support can work in smaller groups or pairs for group activities.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Creative Sustainability - Developing Solutions Using Permaculture - Design & Technology - Years 7 to 10

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