Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Australian native plants

20 minutes

Find Out: What foods are viable?

25 minutes

Take Action: Regenerative farming and native plants

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Australian native plants

Step 1

Share the following video with students:

Regen Farming - Caring for Country Password: RF_EDU (https://vimeo.com/841108354)

(Note: This video comes from the documentary Rachel’s Farm, which explores the journey that a farmer - Rachel Ward - takes when shifting her farm from conventional practices to regenerative practices.)

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts about what they observed in this video. You could then use the following questions to guide a brief class discussion:

Why do you think native plants are great agricultural crops?
Are you aware of any native plants that are used as agricultural crops?

Step 2

Now introduce students to the idea of native Australian foods by watching the following video:

Packed full of antioxidants, Australian Native foods are going global (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9kXvTOMYd4)

Once complete, invite students to suggest 3 facts that caught their attention during the video.

Continue your discussion by explaining to students that the native foods and botanicals (e.g. cosmetics and medicinal products) industry is rapidly growing and as of 2023, is thought to be worth up to $50 million a year.

This video suggests many flavour and health-related benefits of native foods and botanicals. Pose the following question to students:

what might be the environmental benefits of eating more native Australian foods?
Suggested answers: because native Australian foods are already adapted to the environment in Australia, they may need less water, less protection from pests and climate variations, and fewer additional nutrients in the soil.

Tip: Where students have completed other lessons in this unit, remind them of the principles of regenerative agriculture (see the Regenerative Farming fact sheet) and environmental stewardship when we produce food.

Step 2

Explain to students that they will soon look at native Australian foods and botanicals in more detail. It will be useful for them to understand the vocabulary around these foods before they start.

Distribute the Native Australian Ingredients Vocabulary List to students and ask them to research the definitions of any of the terms they are unfamiliar with.

They can also add examples and further clarifications to this document as they progress through this lesson.

Find Out: What foods or botanicals are viable?

Step 1

Explain:

Before European arrival, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples used a number of different techniques to ensure the security of their plant and animal populations as future food sources through practices like harvesting and storing seeds and fire-stick farming. Settlers brought their farming techniques, animals and plants that have reshaped Australia and Australia’s food production. However, there are currently about 6,400 known native food and botanical plants in Australia, but we are only working, in small quantities, with 35 of these.

Students will now familiarise themselves with Australian food plants and evaluate whether they think there is a market for this food in commercial production in Australia.

Step 2

Students are to choose a native food or botanical ‘ingredient’ from the following list (also available on the Student Worksheet - * for supported students):

Figs	Lilly pillies	Quandong
Bush apples*	Bush plums*	Cycad
Pandanus	Macadamia*	Acacia seeds
Bush tomatoes	Native cucumber*	Native pear*
Yams	Water lily bulbs	Honey ant*
Finger lime*	Warrigal greens	Sea parsley
Snowberries	Lemon myrtle*	Pepperberry
Bush coconut	Ruby Saltbush	Wangunu
Tjanmata	Wakati

They will need to undertake research into the native food or botanical that they have chosen and will create an A4-sized poster about this native ingredient.

Note: Where students have completed the mini-beasts poster for this lesson they can design this new poster to complement their existing poster.

This native foods or botanicals poster must cover the following areas (also available on the Student Worksheet):

A picture of the plant or parts of the plant that are used in foods or botanicals
A map of Australia that indicates which area the plant

Currently grows in (one colour)
Can be grown in (a second colour)

How the ingredient is used (e.g. the oil is extracted, it is ground for flour, eaten whole, is the whole plant edible or only a part of it?)
When is the plant grown and harvested? (e.g. time of year and longevity of produce)
How is it harvested? (e.g. dug out, gathered, picked etc.)
What are the nutritional values of the plant?
Is there currently a commercially grown equivalent to this product on the market? (e.g. is there an equivalent such as wheat flour or lavender oil?)
Is it more easily produced than its Australian equivalent?
What are the potential commercial properties of the plant in Australia? (e.g. local food source)

Students can use the Poster Rubric to guide the creation of their posters.

Step 3

Students should share their posters with their class.

Note: Where students have completed the mini-beasts poster for this lesson, the two posters can be displayed together.

Take Action: Regenerative farming and native foods

Step 1

Explain:

As we seek ways to practice more sustainable and regenerative forms of food production, many land managers and farmers are considering that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived sustainably on this land for many, many thousands of years. Over the many, many years that they lived on this land, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities developed food-sourcing practices that worked in harmony with natural systems and that ensured food security into the future. As we - the recent arrivals to this country - look to strengthening food security and environmental health, is there anything we can learn about food production from the Traditional Owners of this land? Where is the role of regenerative agriculture in this discussion?

Note: It may be that students are familiar with the debate around whether or not Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples practised agriculture before the arrival of Europeans (see here). Although this discussion doesn’t form part of this lesson, it could be useful to mention that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have strong connections to Country and have lived sustainably upon the lands and waters of Australia for many, many thousands of years. Their connection to Country is partly demonstrated through their land management practices, such as fire-stick farming and fish traps.

Students will explore some of the impacts of European farming practices on the Australian landscape in other lessons in this unit; however, throughout all these lessons, it is important for students to understand that as we strive to find more sustainable agricultural practices, there is much we can learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about how to care for the lands and waters in and around Australia.

Step 2

Students will now work in pairs to research and answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

how do growing native foods and botanicals commercially relate to regenerative agriculture? Use the ingredients you looked at earlier to demonstrate any ideas you have about this question.
what can we learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures about sustainably growing food?

Students need to research these questions, finding as much information as they can in the time available to them.

Note: Students should be made aware of the importance of sources for their research. When referencing online sources, the quality of the source needs to be considered, particularly when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. Students should remember the Search Strategies for Googling.

Some sources to get you started:

The Conversation - Articles on native foods
State Library of Victoria - Aboriginal People, Land and Food
Australian Food Timeline - Pre 1788 Australian food sources
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park - Bush foods and tools
Aboriginal Culture - Aboriginal Bush Foods
Cool Australia - Cool Burning Factsheet
SBS - This project is dedicated to raising the potential and profile of bush foods
Greening Australia - What is Carbon Farming?
Kiss the Ground - Cover crops
The Greens - What is Regenerative Agriculture and why does it matter?

Step 3

In their pairs, students are to write a 2-minute TEDx Talk which enlightens their audience about the role of native foods and botanicals in regenerative farming practices and future food security.

Invite students to think about the following when planning their TEDx Talk (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What native ingredients did you look at, and what is interesting or important about them?
What are the benefits of using native ingredients?
How does growing native ingredients commercially relate to regenerative agriculture? What are the benefits and challenges for producers and consumers?
How can regenerative farming practices be used with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land management practices to provide the best, most nutritious food possible?
What links can you make between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land management practices and current regenerative farming practices?

This information could help students write and record their TEDx Talk.

The TEDx Talks are to be recorded and uploaded to Padlet.

Extend: Students are to watch a minimum of two TEDx Talks by other classmates. They are to leave a comment under these two videos with 2 stars and a wish and their name. (Two stars and a wish = Two things they did well and one thing they could improve upon for the future). If there are already multiple comments under one video then students are to skip that one and watch/comment on another video.

Reflection

Note: if you plan on completing multiple lessons from this unit, students should use a separate document for reflections throughout these lessons to track their changing views on agricultural practices in Australia.

Invite students to work independently to respond to one of the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What would it take for Australians to start eating native foods and using native botanicals on a wider scale?

Given that the native foods and botanicals market has only developed because of the sharing of knowledge by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples, how would you ensure this emerging market benefits Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities? This article gives a bit more context around this issue.

Take it further

Students who complete the work early can engage with the separate ongoing lesson on Space Agriculture, which has been written and designed specifically for this purpose.

Differentiated learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this.

In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance with positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

The Role of Native Foods and Botanicals

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