Environmental Education Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Australian Environmental Education

February 23, 2022March 17, 2022

SeaWeek 2022

SeaWeek is a campaign to focus community awareness, provide information and encourage an appreciation of the sea. The dates are on 5 – 13 March 2022 and this years theme is Our SEArch – what will you discover?. The theme is based on the Ocean Literacy Principle that the Ocean is largely unexplored.

Composite image of the key marine environments; ocean, coral reef and mangroves — Key marine environments; ocean, coral reef and mangroves

I relate to this years theme as I love exploring the coastline and below the oceans waves. There is always so much to discover if you look. I have a range of resources to learn more about our marine world and for your to discover something new this SeaWeek.

FREE On Demand session

My Journey Beneath the Waves takes you and your students on an exploration of the marine environment. The temperate waters around Sydney are home to a variety of habitats including kelp beds and sponge gardens. These are wonderful place to dive and discover the diversity of animals that live there.

I talk about my experiences SCUBA diving and take you on a journey beneath the waves to explore this wonderful world.

Education Resources

Oceans contain the greatest diversity of life on Earth. Habitats range from the freezing polar regions to the warm waters of the coral reefs, deep sea hydrothermal vents to shallow seagrass beds and beautiful sponge gardens to giant kelp forests, marine organisms are found everywhere.

Caring for our Coasts

Australia is home to the over 10,000 beaches and no part of Australia is more than 1,000km from the ocean. Our coasts are impacted by our actions on land. Rubbish and microplastics can be found washed up on almost every Australian beach.

dead turtle entangled in fishing nets on the oceans

Pollution and rubbish get washed into our rivers and waterways with stormwater runoff and end up on our coasts and oceans. Over 75% of this rubbish is plastic. Plastics in the environment can take hundreds of years to break down, thereby impacting marine species for generations.

The Beach Survey provides a starting point to understand the types of rubbish in the marine environment.

Beach Survey

The Beach Clean up can help you work together as a team and community to remove this of rubbish.

Beach Clean Up

I have also create a collection of On Demand videos looking at marine environments and caring for the coast.

Watch Now

SeaWeek gives us a fantastic opportunity to promote educational issues of relevance to the marine environment.

November 3, 2021November 15, 2021

FrogID Week

Take part in Australia’s biggest frog count during FrogID Week. Frog ID Week is on between 12 – 21 November. Australia is home to about 240 species of native Amphibians, all of which are frogs. In urban areas, human development has reduced the natural habitat available to frogs. FrogID Week is a great way to learn about frogs living in your backyard.

Perons Tree Frog on fern — Peron’s Tree Frog
**Scientific name:** *Litoria peronii*

Help to record frog calls during FrogID Week using the free app and uncover which frogs live in your backyards, local parks and bushlands. Your recording can help identify changes to local frog populations and inform frog conservation across Australia. Download the free FrogID app today and help us count Australia’s frogs.

This park in the middle of urban Sydney might not look like much, but after a few days of rain the low lying grass area became a Frog Swamp. I could hear the frogs call from 50 metres away, the closer I got the louder there were. I was able to get a great recording for FrogID Week. Listen below to the Common Eastern Froglets Crinia signifera and Striped Marsh Frogs Limnodynastes peronii calling.

Common Eastern Froglet Crinia signifera

This tiny frog is only 3cm in size and if very commonly heard but rarely seen. They are common and widespread across south-eastern Australia. Their call is a repetitive “crick, crick, crick, crick, crick”.

Striped Marsh Frog Limnodynastes peronii

This large species of frog is found down the east coast of Australia. Their call is a single, short “tuk” or “whuck” which is repeated every few seconds.

Join me on Tuesday 16 November at 2pm for a FREE live virtual excursion to learn more about Frogs and how you can get involved in FrogID.

Book now for the FrogID Week session

If you can’t join me for the Live session you can watch the Fascinating Frogs video to find out more.

You can create a frog friendly garden

Frogs are very sensitive to water loss because their skin is permeable. This also means Frogs are really sensitive to chemicals. Frogs can end up absorbing chemicals that could harm or potentially even kill them. Pesticides can also deplete the frogs’ food source.

You can encourage frogs to come to live and breed in your backyard by creating a frog friendly garden. Create a small shallow pond in an area that is partly shaded or install a Frog Hotel.

Reducing chemicals use in your garden
Creating a Frog Habitat
Be patient and wait, if you build it they will come

Use FrogID to research the frogs that are found in you local area. This will help you work out what kind of habitat will suit your backyard best.

You can use PVC pipe to create a habitat for tree frogs. Frog Tubes are an easy way to provide somewhere safe for tree frogs to live too. Use a 1 metre length of PVC pipe and stick the base in the ground to tie them to a tree. It provides a really moist environment for tree frogs to hide in.

A Frog Hotel is a great option for tree frogs and provide them a safe place to hide during the day. Check out the video below for step by step instructions on how ro make a Frog Hotel.

Discover more about Frogs and some of their amazing adaptions. There are also lots of information to create a frog friendly backyard in your area.

Frog activity and resources

October 10, 2021October 10, 2021

Connect to Nature

Sometimes you just need to slow down and connect with nature. Sit under your favourite tree or go for a walk in the park. This is especially important at the moment to give yourself permission to have a break. Take some time out every day for you, even 5 minutes can make a difference.

Remember to look up and change your perspective
Touch and feel different tree bark
Visit your favourite tree, if you don't have one, find one
Don't forget to use all your senses

I recently had a wonderful and restorative online Forest Therapy session with Mary Bell from Nature Knows. It was great to take some time to connect with the environment around me and appreciate the sights, sounds and smells in my backyard. Along my journey I discovered these animals in my garden. I wouldn’t have spotted them if it wasn’t for the activities in the Forest Therapy session.

Baby St Andrews Cross Spider with Zig Zag web

I have continued with the lessons learned during the session and have been giving myself permisison to take a break and spend more time outside. I have been going on more walks, listening to the sounds of the birds and recording frog calls for Frog ID. It is great to discover some of the wildlife that we share our environment with. Spending more time outside and slowing down has allowed my to connect with nature and capture some amazing images of these animals.

Exploring my backyard and local area have been a wonderful chance to slow down and connect with nature.

January 1, 2021February 2, 2021

The year that was: 2020

I don’t think 2020 turned out the way anyone expected. In the first 2 months of the year Sydney experienced bushfires, droughts, heatwaves and then record rains and floods. Just when we thought the worst of 2020 was behind us, COVID-19 changed our lives for ever.

2020 was going to be My year of Sustainability and I was able to achieve some of my sustainability goals, however many were put on hold. During 2021 I will be able finish the journey I started.

Planting natives and building a frog pond

In 2020 my focus had to change and I began creating more education resources and activities and delivering online education programs. I created over 50 resources pages and activities focusing on earth and environmental science over the last 12 months.

Education resources

Activities

I have also been writing resources for the Junior Landcare Learning Centre. You can find the following resources on their website. Create a Wildlife Habitat with this series of 5 resources including: Research, Vision, Design, Planting and Monitoring.

Other activities I have written for the Junior Landcare Learning Centre explore the importance of water with Every Drop Counts. This activity also looks at water usage and water saving ideas. Investigate the journey of water through the environment, from the mountains to the sea, with the Exploring the Story of Water program designed for younger kids.

I have a series on catchments and water and a series on a beach survey and clean up for high school students coming out soon, so keep an eye out on the Landcare Learning Centre in 2021. I was also excited to be able to contribute to this year’s Coastcare Week campaign and wrote a following booklet on Marine Litter.

Like many other people in the education community I had to pivot to online delivery in 2020. I have been working with Virtual Excursions Australia for many years and was able to transition my programs for online audiences. I delivered programs for schools and individuals reaching thousands of students from across the world.

Another focus has been photographing some of the amazing wildlife I’ve come across during the year. Below is a selection of image taken at Sydney Zoo, central west NSW, central coast and my backyard. You can check out some of my favourite Macro images too.

Let’s see what 2021 brings!

September 7, 2019June 11, 2023

Welcome to Australian Environmental Education

Australian Environmental Education is a place to discover more about the natural world.

I think Threatened Species Day an appropriate time to launch Australian Environmental Education. As a day to raise awareness of plants and animals at risk of extinction. It is also a day to reflect on what we can do to make a difference. Australian Environmental Education is my responses to that question, this is what I can do to make a difference.

I have been developing and delivering Environmental Education programs for the last 20 years and I am a passionate advocate of hands on learning. I have been developing a range of programs to make learning natural science easy. Science Made Easy are hands on programs aimed at increasing scientific literacy through investigations and experiments. Programs are designed to empower kids and provide them with the knowledge and skills to continue their learning.

I will post useful ideas and resources for engaging your student in environmental education and to become environmental citizens for our future.

To start off I have collated some resources and links for Threatened Species Day