Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What does a regenerative garden look like?

15 minutes

Find Out: Getting ready

30-45 minutes

Take Action: Communication, resources, budgeting and location (could be completed as homework)

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What does a regenerative garden look like?

Pairs task - the following information is also available on the Student Worksheet

Step 1

Using the knowledge they gained during this unit of work, students will spend the next two lessons planning (and potentially further executing, depending upon available time and resources) a garden at school using regenerative farming practices. This garden will aim to demonstrate to an audience (the school community) how regenerative agriculture can improve food security and sustainability.

Before they begin to plant their garden, it might be useful for students to understand what a regenerative garden could look like. They might be familiar with the principles of regenerative agriculture they explored throughout this unit; however, how might these principles look in a small-scale garden rather than on a large farm? You could refer students to the Regenerative Farming fact sheet to remind them of the principles of regenerative agriculture.

Invite pairs of students to work together to research regenerative gardening. Some key terms that could be used to guide their research could include (also available on the Student Worksheet):

compost
pest control
minimal soil disturbance (e.g. no-dig or no-till gardening)
learning from natural systems (e.g. local climate, native plants and animals)
mulching
crop rotation
cover crops
weed management.

For each of these points, students should record suggestions that they believe could be reasonably included in a garden at their school. As part of this, they should consider what materials would be required to address these points (e.g. a compost bin or heap, suitable tools for no-till gardening, native plants) and how they can source these materials (e.g. can you build a compost heap, can you construct your tools, and can you learn how to propagate your plants?).

Students could also keep a selection of web resources (e.g. useful websites or videos) that they can include in their folios and refer to throughout the planning process. They could also save images (with references) to help inspire their planning.

The following sources can be used to start student research:

Sustainable Table - Ethical Food and Fibre 101
Sustainable Gardening Australia - Regenerative Gardening = Sustainable Gardening
Savvy Gardening - Regenerative gardening
Regenerators - Make your garden regenerative and wildlife friendly
Green Bay Botanical Garden - 5 Ways to Start Regenerative Gardening for Better Soil Health

Step 2

If time permits, you could provide each pair with the opportunity to team up with another pair to share their ideas around regenerative gardening and to add to their list of ideas as a way of ensuring they have a comprehensive list of regenerative gardening ideas to work with.

Find Out: Getting ready

Group task - the following information is also available on the Student Worksheet

Step 1

Students will initially need to consider the following:

Would they prefer to plant a native garden to encourage minibeasts and pollinators to the school? OR
Would they prefer to plant a food-based garden that could contribute to the school canteen and/or the Home Economics rooms?

Students are to decide which sort of garden they would prefer to plan for and get into appropriate groups of up to four.

Step 2

Explain to students that by the end of these two lessons, students will need to submit a folio of work that showcases:

your group’s aim is for your garden (native or food-producing)
what each person in your group will contribute to the project
a budget/ costings sheet
a short explanation and any communication records (emails, notes from conversations) regarding permission for the garden
submit their plant choice sheet as well as a brief description of their choices and their planned location of the garden
submit their plans for the layout and regenerative garden aspects of the garden
submit their final list of what they would need to build or construct to create your garden.

In their group, students are to decide (students should record their responses to these points on the Student Worksheet - they can refer back to these throughout the project planning):

Aims: What are your aims as a group?
Responsibilities: Who will be responsible for which aspects of the garden (permission, budgeting, costings and location)?
Timings: When are they aiming to complete their individual portions of the task so that they can move on to the planning portion?
Applying regenerative gardening principles: What principles of regenerative agriculture (see here) will you aim to incorporate into this garden, and how will they be included? How will the garden improve food security or sustainability by incorporating regenerative farming practices?
Adopting a regenerative agriculture mindset: How is each person ensuring that they are tying their work back to regenerative farming practices (the focus of this unit)?

Take Action: Communications, budgeting, resources and location

Individual task

Step 1

Give each student in each group a number from 1 to 4, and assign each student the correlating task:

Step 2

Give each student their relevant document and ask them to work independently to work through the tasks on this document.

You can then explain to students that they will use the next lesson to take the next steps around planning and pitching their ideas for a regenerative garden.

Reflection

Note: if you plan on completing multiple lessons from this unit, students should use a separate document for reflections throughout these lessons to track their changing views on agricultural practices in Australia.

Invite students to work independently to respond to the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Did we use our time productively in this lesson? Why or why not?
Did we work well as a team? Give examples.
What will we do in the next lesson, and how can we best achieve it?
Have we tied in regenerative farming techniques? Where and how?

Differentiated learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this.

In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance with positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

Planning a Regenerative Garden: Part A

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Summary

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