Education For Sustainability (E.F.S.) are a group of facilitators who work with 5 schools in Kinsale and other towns. E.F.S. work under the umbrella of Transition Town Kinsale and the Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability

Transition Year Sustainability Module

Kinsale Community School

Evaluation of the Outcomes and Impacts

Contents

Introduction

Initial Aims and Objectives

Activities, Outcomes and Impacts.

Evaluation

Conclusion

Appendix 1: examples of the students contribution to Transition Tales project.

Appendix 2: photographs of students working on practical projects.

Introduction

 

The Transition Year Sustainability Module was a pilot project, funded by the WCDP , designed and delivered by Education for Sustainability and in association with TTK. 

For 4 months (February – May 2010), two facilitators worked with the 'Green team', a group of 16 transition year students in Kinsale Community school.  This was (as far as we know) the first attempt to run this kind of module with this age group in a Community school in Ireland.

Initial Aims and Objectives

Our aims were:

1:       To introduce the students to contemporary environmental issues both locally and globally, with a focus on understanding the realities of peak oil and climate change.

2:        To introduce them to the transition town concept, and introduce activities that will help the students creatively vision for their future within a changing global economy.

 3:       For the students to publish a booklet focusing on Kinsale’s energy, food, transport, and economy entitled 'Transition Tales'.  

4:        To introduce the students to Permaculture design, in a hands on, practical way, through building no-dig mulch bed gardens, and a food forest. 

Activities, Outcomes and Impacts

Classroom activities:

The work we did with the students in the classroom focused on introducing them to the idea of   transition towns, and to foster an awareness of sustainability in a global and local context. The lessons were designed so that the students could engage with the topics in a creative and interactive way, using fun games and art activities to explore complex global issues. Visual aids were a valuable tool for sharing information with the students. We used power point to teach in the classroom, these classes related to the practical sessions that we later gave outdoors. The students also had the opportunity to watch the film 'The Story of Stuff' and the BBC documentary 'The Human Power Station'. These visual presentations were followed by open discussions about the films which highlight energy conservation and the impacts of consumerism on the earth. 

During the research phase of the 'Transition Tales' project, the students had the opportunity to hear local experts lecture in connection to energy, transport, food and the economy, both locally and globally.  The students showed concern and interest in the environmental and economic challenges that they are facing as young adults. They asked thoughtful questions to the guest lecturers, which showed that their comprehension of complex real world problems was quite good.

  After learning about the benefits of local community based initiatives, two of the students began working with Transition Towns Kinsale committee during the planning of the annual Spring Fair. Their role was to coordinate the rest of the Green Team to be volunteers before and during the day of the fair.  They made their own coloured shirts for the event to have a visual impact around the town. The students worked with one of the Transition Town committee members to organise an information stand where the students measured the carbon footprint of the Spring Fair attendees. This project had a big impact on the awareness raising element of the day.  Many of the public who were brave enough to have their carbon footprint measured, left feeling shocked by the results. The Transition Tales project that the students had been working on was also exhibited during the Spring Fair, giving the public the opportunity to see what they had been working on and contribute their own vision for Kinsale's future. 

Practical activities:

The main focus of the practical work was to share our skills in creating organic food gardens on the school grounds. These activities gave the students the opportunity to relate some of the theory of the classroom into practical hands on activities connected with food miles and creating a more local and resilient community. 

 The students thrived off being outdoors and learning new practical skills that were, for the majority of students, totally new. They learned how to build raised beds using locally sourced timber. We used a no-dig gardening method to encourage soil fertility.  This was done using seaweed, manure and straw as mulch through which they later planted vegetables, herbs and flowers. The result was extremely nutritious soil. The home economics students had fresh herbs and vegetables to use during their classes.

The students also helped to transform a grassy unused area of the school grounds into a productive “food forest”. The students planted fruit trees, nut trees, and berry bushes for future students to enjoy. During the sessions they learned how to plant and maintain the forest garden and created a natural willow fence around the garden. The fruit trees and bushes were mulched to suppress the weeds and give them nutrients.

Both the gardens that we created with the students had a visual impact on the grounds of the school, arousing the interest from many other students and teachers. The students seemed proud of their achievements and enthusiastic to share what they had learned with others.

 Giving the students the opportunity to do the physical and creative work outdoors seemed to have a big impact on them as they were keen to continue to practice their newly learned skills outside of class time. The outcome of this was that a group of 4 students initiated a volunteer effort to help the boys at St. John’s National school to improve their school garden.  They shared the skills they had learned during our program with their younger contemporaries, showing a mastery of the no dig mulch bed gardening techniques that we had shared with them at the community school.

 Challenges we faced

 Classroom activities

 The theory based work seemed to have an immediate impact on the students understanding of the issues but many of them were reluctant to do any homework outside of the classroom. This was an important element for the transition tales project and so the final outcome of the project was disappointing. The students were asked to get into groups, do research, and conduct interviews concerning Kinsale's energy, transport, food and economy in the past, present, and to vision for a more sustainable future. These concepts proved a bit too lofty for students to work on without our assistance. The groups had trouble gathering original information, and resorted to Wikipedia to complete most of their projects.

We were unrealistic in our expectations of their commitment and interest in doing the project outside of class time. This may be due to a) the students' expecting a lighter workload during transition year or b) that they are not mature enough to understand the concepts to fully engage in the process or c) that they are not mature enough to instigate dialogue within the community.

 Because of this, a lot of classroom time was occupied trying to finish students’ assignments. The work they did hand in had lots of potential, but was only at the beginning stage of research and was not developed enough to put together for a publication. Although the project was not completed as we had hoped, it was a valuable experience that helped the students understand and engage with the Transition Towns concept, and the process of visioning for their future. 

Practical activities:

The initial visual impact of the two gardens that we created was impressive, however, without our guidance the students did not take on the responsibility to water the seeds that they had sown. This resulted in some of the crops failing, and the raised bed garden was not as productive as we had hoped. Also, the students are on holidays during the most productive growing season (may-September) so they were not able to see and be a part of the full growing cycle of a productive food garden. The students did not take the imitative to maintain the garden over their summer holidays and so the outcome was that the gardens became overgrown with weeds.

 Maintenance and vandalism are some of the main problems when creating gardens within a school. Although the methods of gardening that we shared with the students aimed to decrease the amount of work needed to maintain a healthy and productive garden, it was not enough to sustain the visual impact that we would have liked. 

 If we were to do the project again we would divide the class into smaller groups and work on different outdoor projects. This would allow the students more opportunity to gain ownership of their garden and hopefully take more responsibility in maintaining it.  For the students to really learn from their experience working on the land,  it is important for them to see the continuation of the garden so they can observe, interact and engage with the realities of natural cycles.   Projects like this work best when they continue into the autumn so that the students get the chance to harvest and celebrate the completion of the food cycle with a feast of the fruits of their labour.

Because of the nature of transition year, our schedule was often disrupted so our session never had a consistent time, varying between 1.5 hours and 3.5 hours. We also had big breaks between sessions due to the students doing work experience etc....we also had different students coming and going throughout the sessions and throughout the whole term. These considerations also affected the flow of the program, especially when doing group work.

The maintenance strategy needs to be given more thought by the facilitators. This would include a better dialogue with the school's caretaker and the possibility of organizing a few work sessions over the holidays with the students.

Conclusion

The sustainability module with transition year students has been an invaluable learning experience for both the students and the facilitators. It seems apparent that the students are at a good stage of their social, physical and emotional development to be introduced to new skills and ideas that will help empower them to face  the challenges of their future. This module has helped the students make connections with the land and with their community  and to understand how they are a part of helping to creating a positive change. 

Facilitators who take on the task of teaching this module must have extensive knowledge of horticulture, and permaculture design. The module is organic in nature, and will change according to current political, economic, and environmental situations.  This may prove to be challenging, but keeps the module dynamic. Experiential learning techniques that help accommodate students with different abilities create a learning environment that is inclusive for all students. The sustainability module was designed with this is mind, using creative and cooperative teaching styles to engage the students with the subject. These are the techniques we feel are essential in teaching this kind of module effectively. We hope that we will see and be a part of similar program again.....continued...press read more

TRANSITION TALES: ENERGY GROUP

Shane Dwyer, Isabelle Hanrahan, Anna deBont, Sean ORahilly

 

 

 

TRANSITION TALES FOOD GROUP

Ellen Colman, Jeff Mc Carthy, Shane Gallagher, Barry OLeary

 

 

 

TRANSITION TALES TRANSPORT GROUP

Tessa Kingston, Emma, Sean Murphy

 

 

 

 

The Green Team at work on their school gardens

 

  mulching the  raised beds with straw                                

   mulching  with seaweed  

                Green Team volunteering at St Johns National School         

                                                           

 

  weaving a living willow fence 

                             Green team with Education for Sustainability facilitators Tara De Las Casas and Virginia Stearns

 

 

TRANSITION TALES ECONOMY GROUP

Niamh, Claire McCarthy, Ciara  Edmonds and Sophia Recks

 

Interview with James McBarron: Cork  social activist and bookshop owner.

Question 1): how do we build our economy again?

 

The governments approach is to try to do the same thing as Europe- borrow money to bail out the banks, cut out expenditure, cut backs in education and health, less wages and the economy will gradually grow again. But I feel we should do the complete opposite to this. For a start we should try to naturalize the Corrib gas field in Mayo. Use this money to build sustainable energy projects on the west coast like the spirit of Ireland. All the money should be used for sustainable projects.

 

Question 2) How did our economy get into this mess?

 

Well for a start, the banks gave loans of millions to companies who they knew couldn't pay it back. They also gave loans to people so they could pay off their debts, knowing they couldn't make the payments.

 

Question 3) What do you see happening in the near future for Ireland?

 

I think emigration will grow, their will be no jobs, the recession will last at least 10 years.

 

Question 4) What do you see happening in Ireland in the next 10 years?

 

I think economic growth will be slow for the next 10 years, there might not even be any growth.

 

Question 5) Do you think local currency  will ever happen in Kinsale?

 

Well it all depends on the commitment of the people. It would have to run along side the euro if it were to take off.