Movelle Primary School students have gotten creative while looking at the environment as part of the Climate Oasis in Schools program.
The school was the first primary school to participate in this pilot program, with the grade 5 and 6 students involved in co-designing a sketched landscape master plan of the school grounds, in collaboration with professional landscape architects from Pollen Studio and sustainability officer Chiara Trimarchi.
In a series of five workshops students brainstormed design solutions individually and in small groups, to increase urban greening and provide urban cooling.
Design and technologies specialist Melina Cutri said in today’s climate crisis it’s important to empower students to learn and become passionate about sustaining the environment they live in.
“Although I can appreciate the importance of learning theory, I truly believe that the practicality of the ‘master plan’ was essential to the student’s understanding,” she said.
“The students really enjoyed working with industry professionals, such as sustainability officer Chiara, and landscape architects, Bede and Georgia.
“The fact that this was a ‘real life’ project was invaluable to the student’s learning and truly enriched their understanding of all the concepts taught in class.”
School principal Karen Wood has set aside $100,000 of the school’s money to fund some of the master plan and will seek future grants to complete the rest.