Educating the next generation

Charlotte Vaughan (Education and Learning Manager), Kiely O’Flaherty (Schools Program Coordinator)

Education and Learning in Kings Park and Bold Park provides stimulating hands-on, inquiry-based and immersive learning experiences for kindergarten to tertiary-aged students. Our suite of innovative education programs supports the Western Australian curriculum while highlighting local plants, people and places and the actions we can all take as a connected community to ensure a sustainable future.

Equipped with skills to lead at school and in their community, students can become custodians for environmental change and join Kings Park in the global movement to restore our world.

Fostering connections with our environment

The journey begins in early childhood and continues through primary school where opportunities to connect with nature help children develop positive attitudes towards the environment which will last a lifetime.

Reduced human experience with nature is directly linked to the loss of biodiversity. Regular time in nature during the early childhood years may counteract this decline in biodiversity as children build knowledge, relationships and empathy for non-human species including plants. K. Beasley et al., 2021

Noongar Elder Cynthia Garlett joins education presenter Louise Tero and volunteer Janet Walker to share language and culture. Helping children to understand and connect with native flora and fauna from an early age has life-long benefits for health, well-being and our environment. Photo: Emma Schoknecht

Zippy’s Kings Park Adventures is an environmental education program for kindergarten-aged children. Interactive and engaging in design, this outdoor early learning program aims to develop curiosity about the environment and conservation.

The program is delivered in four eightweek terms over the school year. Each week children enjoy stories about native animals and plants incorporating Noongar culture, engage in nature-based play and explore the bushland in Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park.

Kings Park’s Senior Education Officer, Gemma Wood and Duncraig Senior High School students carry out ex situ conservation at the WA Ecology Centre, Bold Park. Photo: Ellen Davies

E-STEM integrates Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, with place-based environmental education, and project and community-based learning. E-STEM combines learning with cultural understanding and well-being to help young people become scientifically literate and environmentally aware. By spending time in nature, understanding indigenous knowledge and western science. Making connections with local environmental issues, primary aged students can be enthused by STEM principles to help solve real environmental problems.

Incorporating citizen science projects during E-STEM action week helps generate change and make a positive difference for the environment. Each visiting class receives a native tree grown by the Friends of Kings Park to plant and care for at their school. Participating in environmentally friendly behaviour equips students to lead environmental action in their school and community. They become advocates for social and environmental change, educating their families and broader community about the value of sustainability. This advocacy is important in achieving the aims of The Decade.

Fremantle Primary School students join the Kings Park Education team during E-STEM Action Week for handson learning activities in our unique banksia woodland. Photo: Ellen Davies

Jessica Glover, Matthew Stray and Kylie Shai- Gaull from Kings Park horticulture share their role in conservation during E-STEM Action Week. Schools were given a Silver Princess, Eucalyptus caesia, propagated by the Growing Friends. Photo: Kiely O’Flaherty

In March 2021, Year 11 ATAR Biology students were among the first to take part in a new restoration ecology program in Bold Park. The program explores in situ restoration techniques and ex situ ecological conservation practices, with a focus on seed conservation, tracking climate change through data collection, plant surveying, fire ecology practices, scientific sampling techniques and the importance of Aboriginal ecological knowledge in land management. This program aims to encourage the next generation of conservation scientists and ecologists by providing inspiration, practical experience, and insight into restoration techniques.

Educating the wider community about positive environmental actions they can take at an individual and community level is the most effective way to shift behaviour to support both ecological sustainability and youth development. We support these aims in the broader community with a variety of experiences, such as corporate workshops, holiday programs, professional learning, interpretive signage, festival workshops, horticultural apprenticeships and volunteering.

Primary school teachers and educators explore the benefits of learning in nature in a professional learning workshop. Photo: Anna Newton

Further reading

Beasley, K., Lee-Hammond, L., Hesterman, S. (2021). A Framework for supporting the development of botanical literacies in early childhood education. International Journal of Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s13158-021-00291-x?