Never too young

Inspiring student agency and ecological understanding in an urban setting 

Young people in our community are acutely aware that we have degraded, and continue to degrade, our planet, with dire consequences for the future. Daily, they are confronted with predictions regarding climate change, global warming, loss of habitat and the threat to, or extinction of, species and the impact this will have on our way of life. This is accompanied by a plethora of conflicting views on what is to be done which often leaves everyone confused, or at least uncertain, as to what action they can take.  

Adding to this confusion is the fact that Australia, as with many parts of the world, is an overwhelmingly urban nation despite our enormous land mass. Our produce comes from the supermarket, vegetables in plastic, eggs in cartons and milk in bottles. Native wildlife is viewed in a zoo; trees are planted in a small plot of gravel surrounded by asphalt and public green spaces are often carefully manicured and planted with non-native vegetation. Students largely travel to School by car or public transport or walk or ride their bikes on concrete paths and made roads. Often in a rush surrounded by noise.  

This is their ‘habitat’. How can they know or understand the diversity of habitats required to sustain our planet. When a young person hears about ‘habitat’ what vision does that conjure? 

It is likely that they do not look around them to see the sometimes micro-habitats that do exist even in cities such as Melbourne. Their own gardens, local nature reserves and wetlands, the rivers and creeks that run through our city are all home to plants, animals, birds and insects. Even the carefully sculpted parks and streetscapes are teeming with life. Most of this goes unnoticed. 

St Michael’s Grammar School aims to address this through a variety of initiatives. A Kitchen Garden introduces growing cycles and the source of our food to students in the Junior School. Students are also encouraged to see the School campus through a different lens, observing and exploring the variety of vegetation and wildlife that exists within the School gates. Attention is given to planting native vegetation, suitable to the local environment and which will encourage native animals, birds and insects.  By encouraging intentional observation students become more aware of the many other habitats that surround them in their local community.   

Students also engage in an extensive array of co-curricular initiatives including outdoor education programs, immersions and more recently, Signature programs that start in the Junior School. All of which expose students to the source of our food, the natural environment and native animals, and encourages them to ask questions about connections between these things and their own impact in the environment.  This starts as early as Prep with students participating in the Little Farmers Signature Program, where they connect with nature and learn about the cycles of life by interacting with animals at Collingwood Children’s Farm. 

Increasingly the School also seeks to demonstrate how sustainability can be intentionally designed, assessed, and embedded across learning areas through inquiry-based pedagogy.  

This is best exemplified by Penguin Squad the ‘Signature Program’ for Year 3 students through which students investigate the breeding cycle of the Little Blue (‘St Kilda’) Penguins and participate in citizen science and environmental stewardship. 

Students visit the Melbourne Aquarium and then the penguin colony itself to observe their environment. The charismatic appeal of the penguins engages the students’ interest and curiosity. Cameras donated by the school to Earthcare are installed in the penguin nests, enabling the students to view the penguins while in the classroom. The innovative use of live cameras, supported by secondary student mentors, transforms sustainability learning from observation to authentic scientific inquiry, allowing primary students to participate in real-world data collection used by Earthcare environmental researchers. 

Students explore the physical features, ecological interactions, and conservation implications of the penguin colony which helps them understand the delicate balance of ecosystems and the interconnectedness of all living beings.  Importantly, students learn that this species still exists because the community has made changes to the environment, demonstrating that humans can have a positive impact on nature and inspiring an enduring commitment to sustainability.  It builds ecological understanding, civic responsibility, and student agency and unites classroom learning with real-world environmental impact.  

The investigation of the penguins is explicitly applied across the curriculum. Students develop numeracy skills through their work with the data, improve their literacy and analysis skills through reading books and articles, and writing stories and poems about the penguins. They express their interest in the penguins through the Visual Arts designing posters, postcards and tea towels. The extent of their engagement and interest is reflected in the variety of artwork. Some students depict information about eggs or penguins being weighed. Others focus on the nests or penguins swimming in the ocean, while still others convey messages about how to protect the penguins.   

Penguin Squad was initially developed knowing that penguins have an important role as an indicator species for environmental health, and that there was a distinctive penguin colony close to the School. To deliver the program the School developed strong partnerships with Earthcare, Parks Victoria and St Kilda Ferries. 

Earthcare began researching the penguin colony in 1986 and now have around 30 researchers and 180 voluntary guides educating the public about the penguins. After the School reached out to the organisation both researchers and volunteers are now supporting the students. The data collected by the cameras is given to Earthcare and the postcards and tea towels designed by the students are sold to raise money for it.  

Parks Victoria manages the home of the penguins, St Kilda Pier, and without their support it would not be possible for the students to undertake their work. In recognition of the students activities, when St Kilda Pier was undergoing redevelopment, Parks Victoria displayed posters designed by the students along the hoardings on the Pier, including an explanation of the students’ work. 

St Kilda Ferries has supported the work of the students by providing transport around the ‘fingers’ where the colonies live, allowing close enough access to study the penguins but far away enough to not intrude on their space. 

These partnerships are reciprocal: students contribute data, public education materials, participate in beach-clean-ups through water quality testing, citizen science, and coastal conservation and support fundraising, positioning them as active contributors to community sustainability efforts rather than passive participants. This has been reflected in a noticeable increase in participation in the Student-led Environmental Action Club. 

Since its introduction in Year 3, students in the Senior School have become involved in Penguin Squad and the whole School community has become more acutely aware of the importance of the Penguin colony as an indicator of environmental health. The partnerships that have been developed have also demonstrated the power of working collaboratively across the community to address sustainability issues and shown that we can all play a part. It is a model that informs sustainability learning beyond Year 3 and is the foundation for a life-long understanding of our place in the world. We are never too young to learn that critical lesson.