Barmera Primary School

Barmera is a rural school community in the Riverland region of South Australia. The region is dependent on water that flows through the region in the Murray River system and economic participation is made up mainly of families in the fruit growing and tourist industries as well as associated small businesses. Aboriginal histories of the Murray and Mallee suggest that language and cultural diversity has been significantly impacted through interactions with colonialism. Gerard Mission relocated desert and river people and remains a focal point of the Riverland Aboriginal community. Currently, the region is culturally and linguistically diverse with sports, community organisations and events, and access to the lake and river providing a focal gathering point for the wider community.

The school had a student population of 236 students at the time of the study and was a category 2 school¹. My School (ACARA, 2018b) data shows an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) score of 916, somewhat lower than the national mean score of 1000. The school mission is to ‘educate, inspire and assist all children to value and respect differences and achieve their full potential’ (http://www.barmeraps.sa.edu.au). Barmera Primary School supports the values of learning, respect, and friendship and aims to provide a safe environment for students which promotes positive social skills and continuous learning. The school population includes 18% Aboriginal students, 50% of students qualify for a school card (this suggests minimal family income), 20% of students speak a language other than English (predominantly Greek), and the school has a high transience rate with over 30% student turnover per year. As well as a strong focus on literacy and numeracy the school offers instrumental music, a choir, computer education, and a volunteer-supported reading program. Of particular interest to this project, the school promotes an active environmental program including Waterwatch² and Weed Warriors³. As a result of its environmental activities the school was added as part of the town’s 2017 submission for the state Sustainability Communities Awards, which it won in 2017.

The aim of the project for Barmera teachers was to build a connection between Lake Bonney and their students, and to focus on the lake as central to place-making through a transdisciplinary pedagogy.

Science specialist Joanna explained that Lake Bonney was a significant place for students, their families and the local community, both human and non-human. As she put it, their approach to designing a topic about Lake Bonney included ‘combining science, mathematics, technology and environmental learning [in an] issues-based curriculum that is being driven by student interest’. She added that the intent of the learning was ‘connecting students to the natural world, to their place in community through the study of water’. The learning was built around a local issue – the nature and well-being of the lake (the ecology).

Classroom teacher Jarrad described the focus for the project as asking ‘the students to identify some issues involving the lake and to come up with some strategies to help minimise the impact of these problems or even solve these problems’. Joanna worked in tandem with Jarrad and provided valuable curriculum knowledge and pedagogical supports. She explained that ‘we work out what the issue is that we’re looking at during the week and I run the science in-depth knowledge base [sic] whereas Jarrad works with the children’. The teachers summarised the project aim as being ‘about how to connect kids to the natural world, their natural world, their place … to tread lightly and to think about that’.

The inquiry-based questions the teachers wanted students to engage with were:

• How are we tied to the lake?
• What do we use it for?
• How has the lake been used in the past?
• How has it changed?
• How will it change?
• How will we change it?

Jarrad and Joanna used a variety of ways to collect data for evaluation purposes. These included documenting students’ prior knowledge of the lake, recording conversations with students, documenting students’ futures scenarios and expo presentations, and collating feedback surveys.

On Monday mornings students were taken by bus to Lake Bonney to undertake their study. They took an active role in the fresh water topic as evidenced by teachers’ recorded conversations and written reports:

• In pairs or threes, students chose their own environmental subject and presented and managed activities at a public environmental expo which included thoughts on the future of the lake and actions they believed needed to be taken to look after the lake.
• Students discussed shared interests: ‘the kids actually talked to each other about shared interests’.
• Learned through interaction with the lake environment about, for example, geological processes such as erosion, the natural history of the lake and its value for humans and other species (see image below).
• Asked questions such as: How has the lake been used in the past? How has it changed? How is it going to change? Who are going to be the change agents?
• Letter writing and invitations to the local council and thank you letters to presenters at the expo. Also writing grant applications.
• Took responsibility for the outdoor education centre and revitalising it for use by the community.
• After a visit by a professional artist, students made their own artistic representations.

A transdisciplinary place-based learning approach was seen by teachers as essential for this topic. As they explained, ‘connection creates meaning, meaning creates engagement, and engagement creates a disposition for learning – that’s where your kids are going to learn, you need them to connect’. The table below illustrates the curriculum framework used to manage the learning.

Transdisciplinary curriculum framework at Barmera

Curriculum Area	Content	Comment
Environmental Education	Tidy Towns and other environmental projects	With the help of the NRM we learned about the various challenges in looking after the lake such as controlling the introduced carp fish and ensuring the health of native fish. We were winners in the National Environmental Awards with tidiest towns because of environmental education, this was showcased along with the expo and other environmental programs we have at school. We gained support from the council for students to take responsibility for, and revitalise the outdoor education centre, so it can be used with community.
Art	Artistic representations of the lake including landscapes and animals. John Whitney (artist) came and worked with the kids, and one of the works that they produced, was the pelicans.	Jarrad did a lot of work with the artist and some amazing artistic presentations resulted. Jarrad: ‘And that’s just really spurred on the kids with the outdoor classroom, like just doing the art, going down, and wanting to go down and do more environmental sculpture’. Students become authors and illustrators.
Literacy	Writing about the lake – what it contains and the ecology, its value, needs and importance. How it is important to the ecology? Correspondence letters.	Our writing was writing with a purpose: it was writing to the council, writing thank you letters, invitations, requests, grant applications. Jarrad: ‘And that [litter near the lake] actually spurred on some other kids to write about their concerns to Tony Pasin, who’s the MP, and he’s actually replied’.
Numeracy/ mathematics	Measuring water volume, distances, areas	Numeracy skills were based around the water, the lake – volume, distance, mass, etc.
Science	Measuring water quality (acidity, temperature, salinity, clarity). Flora & fauna of the lake. Ecosystems. Erosion and its control	Scientific inquiry skills: ‘I’d take the kids once a week for a very specific science lesson, if it was on water quality, on erosion, living things’.
History	History: local and ANZAC day.	We were very lucky with our history because our teacher librarian, who grew up in Barmera, was able to give us those stories from when she was little, what she had seen over the years, and she could tell them from a personal level rather than from a book. Our history lessons took place in places that were appropriate, and the kids listened, the kids were engaged, and it was a lot more solid talking about Anzac Day down at the memorial, and it wasn’t the classroom (Figure 6).
Geography	Geography of place – Lake Bonney	Fantastic way to do geography when you're actually down there… direction, space, distance… which all relates to your maths and numeracy as well.
Engineering	Managing erosion	I never realised how important erosion was going to become to these kids until we looked at all the photos that they took – they were becoming passionate about this issue.
Futures studies	The future of Lake Bonney	The children were involved in future scenarios, looking at what they wanted, what they thought was possible. They also threw the question at other people in the community that worked with us: ‘Now what do you think, what's your aim, what's your view for the future, what would you like to see?’
Civics	Connecting to community	The council came on board and they were absolutely wonderful. We took the kids down to the old environmental centre which has been neglected over the last I don’t know how many years, and picked up bags and bags of rubbish in an hour session; Presentations at the expo: Students worked in pairs or three and chose their own subjects e.g. weeds, rubbish around the lake, foxes, water quality, why we need trees, erosion, Murray Cod. Engagement: the kids were totally engaged in what they were doing. They wrote to the council; they took responsibility and took action in the community. They loved it and they wanted to get back to the education centre, they wanted to take control, they wanted to do the work.

The content of learning at Barmera was based on student questions about Lake Bonney. Joanna described this approach as ‘the antithesis of high stakes testing, it’s around an issue, it’s around transdisciplinary learning’. They also saw that the ideal place to do the learning was at the lake because this allowed the elements of space and place to inform the learning. Joanna explained that ‘Jarrad and I were thinking of moving our classroom down to the lake next term (figuratively as well as practically where we can)’. While a complete relocation was not possible, they were able to work regularly at the lake:

…every Monday morning at 9:10 we threw all the kids on a bus, well they basically raced to the bus, and we took the kids down to the lake. We had two hours down there and that’s where we conducted our start of the week.

Joanna identified the essence of her philosophy about learning:

Throughout the year-long learning experience, I used a collaborative approach to learning. I introduced the concept that scientists don’t work alone, they usually work in teams, so they can share ideas and bounce developing ideas off each other.

Joanna and Jarrad co-managed the teaching and learning and they considered this collaborative, team-teaching approach was essential for such a diverse and active project. Joanna said:

You’ve got to work with someone else, I can't say that strongly enough – I couldn’t have done it on my own, Jarrad wasn’t able to do it on his own. We’ve actually managed to get the project through because we had each other, and you need that supportive network.

Beyond the teaching team, widening the sphere of teaching expertise and learning opportunities was identified as another vital key. Joanna said:

Bring in the experts; the experts know more than we do. Even if they don’t, the kids think they do, and anybody that wears a hard hat and an orange vest obviously knows more about machines than I do.

Connecting to Lake Bonney learning was understood as being a collaborative exercise managed not only by the teachers but also supported by many others. For example, the resource and environment teacher who had lived in the area for a long time was an extremely valuable support person who provided information about Barmera and Lake Bonney, as were other community members.

…can I acknowledge Glenys, who’s our teacher librarian, living legend, environmental guru and everything else, and my wonderful team from UniSA. Couldn’t do without Bruce and Helen, community members that came in through one of the kids, and said ‘Can we help? You can come to our property. We’ll take you down there. We’ll show you around. We’ll show you the turtles’. Our reply? ‘Sure, sounds good to us’. The council’s been fantastic. Parents and community members – I think we had 50% parent [involvement]… on our fishing trip, which was pretty awesome to us, so thank you to everybody that’s helped, definitely well worth it.

The Lake Bonney learning project was further celebrated and shared at the Barmera Primary School environmental expo (see image below), an event that has been running for 10 years. Joanna explained:

…normally it's the older classes involved but this year we added the Year 4/5 class as well, where all the students presented at the expo. It's a kids teaching kids philosophy (if you’ve ever worked where the kids actually present to a whole lot of other kids). We have children from right across the Riverland, from Morgan to Renmark coming to the school to be involved in the sessions, where the kids will give a talk, they will run the activities, and everything is done by them. Great session for us because we will wander around [and listen].

Joanna and Jarrad reflected on why the topic of fresh water had appealed to students:

…within the curriculum, what did we do that was different to anything else? Sometimes I wonder did we do anything different or was this just normal? But everything was based in real life with this project; it was real to the kids, so that was really important. They were real world problems and the kids along the way discovered that these problems actually affected them. We also helped them develop those connections within the real world, they weren’t make believe, there were real people out there that actually cared about the lake, cared about them, and they could work together. Why did we do this? Because it's real life and it's the real world, and that’s what actually engaged the kids.

Looking at Lake Bonney from multiple perspectives – science, literature, history, geography, mathematics, art – enhanced the learning by giving meaning to each of the areas of learning and enabling students to form a comprehensive understanding of and connection to this place. The collaborative learning with shared goals approach, in which students worked in small groups, contributed to the cohesiveness of the classroom, personal communication skills, shared responsibility and learning that was owned by the students.

The two teachers agreed that selecting a local place to study not only contributed significantly to students’ learning but also to their connection to, and responsibility for, their community. Students were able to actively communicate with the wider community through presentations and displays and with local and state government through direct contact and by way of letters.

At the end of the topic students were asked to complete a feedback survey and teachers summarised their responses as follows:

Our evidence? Their skills increased, their inquiry skills were there, they took responsibility for this outdoor education centre. We saw improvement in reading; I saw amazing changes in science and of their ability in numeracy. Teamwork – kids would actually come to school on Mondays, which was really good. I added all these photos because there was one kid who does not read, would not read [when you] give him something to read in the classroom, however the whole class was there waiting because he had to read every historical sign there was along the shore line – it was amazing… They talked about distance, they talked about history with flood levels. It meant something to them. What did we learn? Our students learn best when they're actually connected, they were connected to the lake, and that’s what the main thing was, that I think that we’ve learnt all along, it's about connection. If it means something it's worth something to the kids.

In summary, Joanna and Jarrad made the following reflections:

• Our students learn best when they are connected to the topic being studied.
• If it means something, it is worth something to the kids.
• The various curriculum areas are all connected. Connection creates meaning, meaning creates engagement and engagement creates a disposition for learning.
• With an integral approach to learning, everything flowed together. The science was connected to the English, the geography was connected to the maths, the technology was connected to the art, etc.
• We will always seek to work with other teachers, develop a supportive network, bring in experts and complete a topic with a celebration.
• A team is what is needed to support each other through the hard mornings when we don’t want to stretch ourselves.
• Experts know so much more than classroom teachers.
• If you can tell stories about what things were like 50 years ago – then you know more than we did.
• Increased students’ inquiry skills and skills in interpretation, understanding, inquiry, research.

This led teachers to make the following recommendations for similar projects in the future:

• Always work with another teacher.
• Have a supportive network.
• Bring in experts.
• Have an endpoint and celebration.

Perhaps the most significant outcome of the Lake Bonney study by Year4/5 was the shift from taking the lake for granted, as ‘just a place in our area’ to being able to ask and investigate their own questions, developing a deeper understanding of, and affinity with, the lake. Joanna explained that students:

…had a lot of prior knowledge about birds around the lake but it was difficult actually getting a lot of questions from them initially. They were keen to share their knowledge but that was it. They didn’t know where to go [from there].

This was overcome by taking the students for a walk along the edge of the lake with Glenys, the librarian and local historian, who was able to give the historical background of the lake and explain why it looked the way that it did at that time. Joanna explained that this:

…kind of sparked the children’s interest [and] that’s when we started seeing the kids asking the questions and wanting to know why and how: Why are the trees dead? Why is the water so murky? Why is it salty? How does that affect the plants? Why did it dry out? What do you mean this was an electricity station? Why has it changed? What happened to the jetty?

• Glenys Matthews, teacher librarian, environmental activist and leader in the community, living local legend.
• UniSA researchers who supported us as learners, and kept our focus.
• Bruce and Helen Richter, community members who invited us to their property when they heard about the project, ran activities for the kids, were able to engage the kids in environmental, cultural, recreational and futures learning.
• Berri-Barmera Council, whose response and support for the kids and the town and the project has been amazing.
• Parents: when we took the kids fishing on the coldest and windiest day of the year, the parents were there with their kids and supporting us as teachers.
• Community members: being down at the lake made the class very public and caused a lot of interest from the community members as they enjoyed their walk along the lake. The majority of them would stop and ask questions about what the kids were doing, what they were learning and then often would take time to talk the kids.