Semi-retired environmental biologists Honorary Research Associate Felicity Bradshaw and Emeritus Professor Don Bradshaw have produced a new science program for kids.
An innovative new educational initiative aims to revolutionise science and literacy learning for students in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt.
A UWA spokesperson said Learning on Country: A Two-way Integrated Science and Literacy Program for Wheatbelt Schools merged Western scientific approaches with Indigenous ecological knowledge.
She said it provided an “enriching, place-based educational experience” for students in Years 1 to 10.
Developed by semi-retired environmental biologists Felicity Bradshaw and Don Bradshaw, with help from some of UWA’s best known researchers, it is founded on the idea that cultures can listen to one another and learn.
“The Wheatbelt, a region the size of Britain that sits in the south-west corner of Australia, was once described as having one of the richest floras on Earth,” Ms Bradshaw said.
“However, since the arrival of Europeans, around 94 per cent of the area has been cleared of natural vegetation to make way for agriculture and grazing.
“This has had a catastrophic effect on the plants, animals, soil and local First Nations People, who were systematically dispossessed from their lands and, subsequently, their way of living.”
Ms Bradshaw, who had already written children’s books A Tale of Two Honey Possums, The Great Lizard Trek, and Be a Bush Scientist produced the new educational resource while working as a CSIRO STEM Professional-in-Schools.
“The program integrates the long-time ecological knowledge of the local Ballardong people, guiding teachers on how to include the Aboriginal population in their classes, with modules providing seamless learning between science and literacy across different year levels,” she said.
“Years one to two explore the bush as habitat and a source of food; years three to four understand the bush as an ecosystem, in other words how plants and animals live together
“Years five to six research adaptations in the Wheatbelt’s plants and animals.”
Ms Bradshaw said in the secondary school, years seven and eight look at photosynthesis and energy, and explore both town drinking water for potability, and nearby natural waters for pollution.
“Years eight to nine investigate soil, with an extension into carbon and climate,” she said.
Ms Bradshaw said the resource supported key WA Department of Education strategies, including Australian Curriculum implementation, professional learning support, and student attendance and engagement, and was available in hard copy and online versions.
UWA Chair in Australian Literature Professor Tony Hughes-d’Aeth said while the Wheatbelt was created to generate an agricultural surplus it also generated significant deficits and fundamentally devalued the ancient living knowledges of the Noongar people.
“Learning on Country, by integrating literacy and science, as well as Noongar and European knowledges, meaningfully works against these problems, and turns a history of alienation into an opportunity for dialogue,” he said.
Chief Scientist of WA Professor Peter Klinken AC also praised the new resource as a stunning piece of work.
“You have really done a remarkable job bringing all that together. It is such an important initiative. Well done,” Professor Klinken said.
The program incorporates research findings from UWA, along with Murdoch and Curtin Universities and has been fully funded by the State National Resource Management (NRM).
