Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes	Part B: Case Study
25 minutes	Part C: Evaluating The Case Study - Empathy Task
5 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1. Begin this lesson by briefly explaining (or recapping if you completed the previous lesson) 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 food, fiber, and animal products, catch and use energy, manage water and build communities.

Now, watch this 3-minute animation, which covers the ethics of permaculture:

How Can Permaculture Change the World? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U56O6LDyLQ)

Step 2. Differentiation:

If students have completed the previous lesson: Invite students to locate their Venn diagrams annotated to include the principles of permaculture (see below).

Invite students to work with a classmate to briefly discuss the Venn diagram, sharing what new thoughts they might have had about permaculture and its principles since the previous lesson.

If students haven't completed the previous lesson: Provide pairs of students with a copy of the Permaculture Ethics And Principles worksheet which describes the ethics and principles of permaculture and gives an example of how each principle might be applied to a community garden setting. Invite pairs of students to discuss the information on this worksheet using the following questions:

How does the information on this sheet relate to what I already know?
What does this worksheet make me think about?
What does this worksheet make me wonder? What questions do I have?

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts during a class discussion; you can also use this discussion to clarify any questions students have about permaculture.

Part B: Case Study

We have provided 2 real-life case studies; 1 is a permaculture project in Zanzibar, the other is a permaculture garden introduced in a school in Australia. Please choose 1 and adjust the following steps to your relevant case study.

The Zanzibar case study offers students the opportunity to explore permaculture while extending their knowledge and understanding of an often under-studied country. In addition, this case study demonstrates how permaculture can be used to improve community wellbeing on a broad scale, including social and economic wellbeing. However, studying an example based in an Australian school may be beneficial if you are inspired to implement a permaculture project in your own school and may benefit younger students too.

Step 1. Explain to students that they are now going to have a look at a real permaculture project that has recently started in Zanzibar (or in an Australian school).
Zanzibar is an archipelago of islands in Tanzania, Africa. It has beautiful tropical beaches, making it a tourist destination.

Hot tip: Consider projecting Zanzibar in Google Maps, so students can see its placement on the African continent as well as its location in relation to Australia.

Distribute the Case Study - Permaculture Project In Zanzibar or the Case Study- Permaculture Project In Australia worksheet. Explain that this is the part of the actual proposal that the project organisers used to convince the government and funding partners to support the project/School Board and funding partners to support the project. If you look at the first page, you will see the value of the funding that they were able to secure.

Step 2. Explain to the class that they are going to work through this document in sections, reading individually, and discussing the key points as a group at the end of each section. Point out to students that there is a margin labeled ‘Notes’. Encourage students to use this as they read to write down what they think are the key points and any questions they have. Students can also highlight or underline key points as they read.

Step 3. Invite students to read the Background section. Encourage them to look for the main challenges and opportunities identified in the document. In the notes margin, invite students to write 'C' for challenges and 'O' for opportunities, followed by a one or two-word description (e.g. C: deforestation). This should take about four minutes.

Once students have finished reading, invite them to share the challenges and opportunities that they identified.

Step 4. Invite students to now read the Project Justification section. Encourage students to look for the main goals identified in the document. In the notes margin, encourage them to write 'G' for goals, followed by a one or two-word description (e.g. G: reduce poverty). This should take about two minutes.

Once students have finished reading, invite them to share the goals that they identified.

Step 5. Explain that the next section, the Needs Assessment, should echo the challenges and opportunities that they already identified. This section is about the needs of the community that the project is aiming to address. Invite students to read the section and encourage them to identify the people that will benefit from this project. Think about who was consulted for the needs assessment, and who will be involved in the project. In the margin, encourage students to write ‘P’ for people, followed by a one or two-word description (e.g. P: farmers). This should take about two minutes.

Once students have finished reading, invite them to share the people that they identified, and how they are involved in the project.

Step 6. Before they look at the last two sections of the document, encourage students to think about how they would go about addressing the needs they identified.

Invite students to choose one Challenge, one Opportunity, one Goal and one group of People from their notes. Encourage them to write them in their workbooks. For example:

Challenge = deforestation
Opportunity = agroforestry
Goal = less poverty
People = women

Invite students to imagine that they are coming up with an idea to present to the government of Zanzibar/school principal. Encourage students to think about the ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. Clarify that it’s ok if their idea is not about permaculture, but if they use the permaculture ethics then it’s likely that it will tie into permaculture ideas in some way.

Invite students to express their idea by completing the following sentences (provided on the Student Worksheet):

I want to address the challenge of... (e.g. deforestation)
I plan to do this by working with... (e.g. women)
The project will... (e.g. teach them how to farm using agroforestry)
This will allow... (e.g. communities to grow enough food and fibre for themselves and for sale without damaging the soil, resulting in less poverty)

Invite students to share their ideas by reading their completed sentences as a paragraph to the class.

Step 7. Now that students have come up with their own strategies, invite them to read the last two sections of the document: Strategy and Proposed Outcomes. Allow around six minutes of reading time.

Once complete, allow some time for students to share their thoughts about these final two sections, and to clarify any questions or concerns they still have about the case study.

Part C: Evaluating The Case Study - Empathy Task

Step 1. Remind students of the challenges, opportunities, goals and people they identified, explain that they will now conduct a role-play to explore these in more detail. Explain to students that they are going to try and evaluate the design proposal from the perspective of the Zanzibari community/school community. Students will need to act out different characters in the community, and imagine that they are in a community meeting.

Divide the class into 5 sections. Assign one of the following characters to each section, using the descriptions provided to help them get into character (available on the Student Worksheet). If you have chosen the Zanzibari case study, use the roles below:

Young Women: you are young women. You are all educated but you don’t have jobs. it’s hard to find work because there isn't much work and the men seem to get the jobs that are available. Also, you live in rural areas where women are still expected to work in the home and look after the children. However, you would like a job to secure some financial independence and help support your family.
Young Men: you are young men. Only one of you has a job and it doesn’t pay well. The rest of you are working on your family’s farms and you don’t get paid. Having a paid job would mean some financial independence and would mean you could save for your own farm or you could buy your own business.
Farmers: you are farmers. You work hard, but it’s getting more difficult to grow food and you’re not sure why. Your crops are less productive and your animals are often hungry. You can only grow enough to feed your families, and you haven’t made a profit for years. You are worried because you need to buy new tools and animals soon.
Hotel Owners: you own hotels that tourists come and stay in. Business is booming and you are making money. You have trouble finding reliable staff. You also spend a lot of money buying specialty products to keep the tourists happy.
Entrepreneurs: you are entrepreneurs. You have a great idea for a product or service. You are looking for ways to fund and develop your idea, but you’ve never done this before and you don’t know where to start. You are sure that when you get your idea up and running that it will be a success and will provide jobs to local people.

OR

If you have chosen to do the Australian permaculture please use the roles below:

Year 8 student: you are a year 8 student. One of the tasks this year is to design and construct a small vegetable garden within a group of four. You have never grown anything before and you will be learning about permaculture principles for the first time.
Year 9 student: you are year 9 student. You have some experience growing vegetables last year but this year you are to focus on other types of herb productions. You will be building most of this new garden and learning about permaculture principles.
Agriculture Teachers: You have limited time to maintain a working example of a veggie/herb garden at the school. You would like a working example of a garden that you can use in your teaching of permaculture principles and soil building.
Other Teaching staff: you are a group of science, maths, and TAS teachers. You are looking for other ways to engage students in your subjects and make use of the school's existing spaces to make your lessons fun for your students.
School Farm Assistant/Gardeners: You have been working at the school for years and have a very large school grounds to manage. You have been growing food in the showcase area of school agriculture plot. However, the poor fencing and depleted soil has resulted in little being produced. You would like to change the fact that the agriculture plot is rarely used as a teaching space.
School Principal/Deputy principals: You want the school grounds to look neat and tidy and the school agricultural program to be a showcase example to other schools. You see the agricultural program as a reason why parents want to enrol their children in your school.

Encourage students to take a moment to think about what their character needs, and to imagine what they would think of the proposal.

Step 2. Invite students to imagine that their characters are attending a community meeting to decide whether or not to go ahead with this proposal. If they want the project to go ahead, they will need to speak up and tell the rest of the community why and how it will benefit their character. They may not want the project to go ahead - in which case they will need to explain why.

Step 3. Declare the community meeting open. Invite students - as their characters - to contribute their ideas and opinions. Encourage students to begin their questions and responses with “I’m a… and I think”.

Guide the discussion with questions like:

What would you like to change about your situation?
In what ways would this project change your day-to-day life?
What else do you need to know about the project before agreeing to it?

Encourage students to respond directly to each other's characters. For example, if a farmer asks a question, perhaps a hotel owner will have an answer.

The following tips may be useful to help your students share and engage empathetically in this role-play:

Step 4. At the end of the meeting, take a vote to decide if the imagined community wants to accept the proposal or not.

Reflection

Invite students to now work independently to think about the case study and respond to the following questions, providing examples to justify their answers (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How does this case study relate to the permaculture ethic of 'fair share'?
How does it relate to the permaculture ethic of 'people care'?
How does it relate to the permaculture ethic of 'earth care'?

Differentiated Learning

Extension: Invite students to conduct their own research into permaculture by looking at this website: www.permacultureprinciples.com.

Provisions for Learning Support: Students requiring extra support can work in pairs for written and reading activities.

Teacher Reflection

Creative Sustainability - Permaculture Case Study

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