Description of project:
S.E.E.D. is a project of Abalimi Bezekhaya, an environmental Non-Profit Organisation that has been helping residents of the Cape Flats with urban agriculture and greening for almost two decades. The project was created to meet the critical need for transformation of the windswept, desert-like learning environments specific to the Cape Flats area. S.E.E.D. aims to empower teachers and school communities to green and utilise their school grounds as an outdoor classroom for all Curriculum 2005 learning areas.
Phases I (1998) and II (2001) of the S.E.E.D. project involved the compilation of a practical guidebook of greening solutions for schools as well as the development of an OBE (Outcomes based education) teacher training course and lesson plans.
Phase III (completed in 2002) involved training, implementation and resource development. Teacher training incorporated Permaculture training, participatory workshops and lesson planning development.
The Shuttleworth Foundation?s involvement:
The Shuttleworth Foundation funded Phase III of the project. This included:
? Working closely with a school (Sakumlandela Primary School, Khayelitsha Site B) over one year to establish an exemplar of environmental sustainability linked to sound classroom practice.
? A Teacher Training Course which empowered teachers to lead a Permaculture project at their own schools, integrated with teaching practice.
? Materials Development workshops with a cluster of Khayelitsha schools to produce a grade-specific Foundation Phase teaching resource in the context of environmental education.
Aims and objectives:
Phase III aimed to empower teachers and school communities to green and utilise their school grounds as an outdoor classroom for all Curriculum 2005 learning areas. It is related to LO3 of Natural science with regards to environmental education. The teachers were shown practically how to teach natural science through permaculture and how to plant seeds and grow a garden.
Evaluation:
The project was well and efficiently run over the year (2002). S.E.E.D. works both at the grassroots level of the education system in a close relationship with teachers and in collaboration with education policy makers, which is a very unique and ideal situation. This enables them to find out what is required by both the teachers and the DoE. They also have a growing network of organisations that support their work and it is evident by the work that they do and the reports that they have submitted that they are a very dedicated team.
The project resulted in 100 teachers being trained, a model school being created at Sakulandela Primary with environmentally sustainable school grounds and support material developed. These support materials are now having a national impact through Sharenet and teachers are testifying that the teaching resource is a highly relevant and useful teaching aid. Teachers on the Materials Development Programme testify to it giving them the confidence to work with OBE (Outcomes based education) as well as ideas to link practical activities across all learning areas.
The success of the project this year has prompted the Shuttleworth Foundation to continue working with S.E.E.D. ? we are funding a project that is going to be run in partnership with the DoE, where they plan to capacitate teachers in teaching natural science while developing a teaching resource for the intermediate phase in 2003.