dune dudes - a school Program Project dune dudes€¦ · dune dudes dune dudes - a school Program...

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SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BIODIVERSITY COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS CASE STUDY This Project is a South West Catchments Council project funded through the Australian Governments Program, Caring for our Country Program and the Government of Western Australia DUNE DUDES PROJECT Dune Dudes - A School Program PROJECT TITLE Dune Dudes PROJECT LEADERS Emily Hughes Dit-Ciles, (SWCC) and Craig Bohm, (SWCC) PROJECT MANAGER Chris Gibbs, (SWCC) and Blair Darvill, (SWCC) PROJECT DURATION July 2011- July 2013 PROJECT AREA All coastal areas from Mandurah to Walpole BENEFICIARIES Local Government through on- ground partnerships, Coastal Community groups through on- ground partnerships, schools, Edith Cowan University and the general public PROJECT AIM & OBJECTIVES To specifically target coastal schools and youth organisations, delivering environmental presentations, workshops and on-ground events designed to engage youth, ensure they care for the coast and promote environmentally sensitive practices Schools and youth group incursions. Schools and youth group excursions. Schools and youth groups brushing, planting and marine debris collections on the coast TOP: Chris Gibbs & Blair Darvill - aka Capt. Coastcare & Dune Dude (photo: Marcia Van Zeller) Left: Bunbury Catholic College Students brushing Marlston Hill Dunes (photo: Chris Gibbs)

Transcript of dune dudes - a school Program Project dune dudes€¦ · dune dudes dune dudes - a school Program...

sustainable agriculture community engagement biodiversity coastal environments

case study

This Project is a South West Catchments Council project funded through the Australian Governments Program, Caring for our Country Program and the Government of Western Australia

dune dudes

Project dune dudes - a school Program

Project title

Dune Dudes

Project leaders

Emily Hughes Dit-Ciles, (SWCC) and Craig Bohm, (SWCC)

Project manager

Chris Gibbs, (SWCC) and Blair Darvill, (SWCC)

Project duration

July 2011- July 2013

Project area

All coastal areas from Mandurah to Walpole

beneficiaries

Local Government through on-ground partnerships, Coastal Community groups through on-ground partnerships, schools, Edith Cowan University and the general public

Project aim & objectives

To specifically target coastal schools and youth organisations, delivering environmental presentations, workshops and on-ground events designed to engage youth, ensure they care for the coast and promote environmentally sensitive practices

• Schools and youth group incursions.

• Schools and youth group excursions.

• Schools and youth groups brushing, planting and marine debris collections on the coast

ToP: Chris Gibbs & Blair Darvill - aka Capt.

Coastcare & Dune Dude (photo: Marcia

Van Zeller) Left: Bunbury Catholic College

Students brushing Marlston Hill Dunes

(photo: Chris Gibbs)

SWCC COASTCARE ‘THUMBS UP’ -COLOURED

dune dude (dd) is a colourful, young surfing character who “is young and cool’ and knows very little about coastal ecology or about treating the coast with appropriate respect. in a colourful, flamboyant and humorous performance dune dude is educated about how to interact with the coast by captain coastcare, the elderly guardian of the coast. captain coastcare and dune dude perform for younger audiences at schools, festivals and holiday programs. children identify with the cool, young, ‘hip’ dune dude character and hence, the program has been called the sWcc dune dude program. captain coastcare and dune dude are now both registered trade marks of sWcc.

ToP RiGHT: Dune Dude cartoon

ToP CEnTRE: Scouts at a dune planting day (photo: Chris Gibbs)

ABoVE RiGHT: South West Sports Centre - childrens holiday program

(photo: Blair Darvill)

Engaging Young People in Coastal Care

our coasts are facing major challenges from climate change, habitat degradation and rapid population growth and coastal urbanisation. Coastal dunes form the first line of defence for the communities behind them, playing a vital role in protecting coastal areas from erosion, coastal flooding and storm damage, as well as sheltering coastal infrastructure from wind and sea spray.

Sand dunes are also the natural habitats of highly adapted animals as well as many very specialised plants that help to stabilise the dunes. Given this fragile and narrow strip of protection along our coasts, dune revegetation and protection is vital to the ecosystems under threat of erosion and for the defence of coastal communities in the frontline of storms and beach erosion.

The South West Catchments Councils addresses these issues through its flagship coastal engagement tool, the highly successful Dune Dudes program. The primary aim of the Dune Dudes program, with its title character Dune Dude and the signature character Captain Coastcare, is to engage young people, teachers, families, schools and local organisations with coastal environmental issues.

This is presented in a fun and interactive way as a form of ‘edutainment’ to reinforce coast care messages through environmental presentations and theatre workshops.These begin in the classroom and end on site at various coastal locations with real outcomes through hands-on coastal rehabilitation projects.

The performance based extension program is delivered to schools, fetes, fairs, holiday campgrounds and at beach locations during the summer holidays. SWCC’s Coastal Facilitators Chris Gibbs and Blair Darvill have developed a schools activities package to support the performance and have also produced classroom worksheet materials to consolidate the concepts delivered during their incursion and excursion activities.

The program is delivered throughout SWCCs coastal footprint, from Walpole Primary and the DEC Walpole holiday program on the south coast, through to the north at Riverside Primary School in Mandurah.

The program partners school groups with local coastal volunteering groups to help build community capacity for coastal projects. it engenders an environmental conscience in participants, resulting in a healthier coastline that will be better protected into the future.

Young Volunteers When children are involved in volunteering they bring with them their parent helpers, teachers and aides who also contribute.

Behaviour changeWe still have little evidence to measure long-term change in attitudes towards the coastline by the children, families and their teachers who have been involved in the Dune Dudes program.

However as Peter Robinson, Coordinator of the Dune Dudes and other environmental programs at Parkfield Primary School has said

about Dune Dudes and their other environmental projects, “Successive surveys conducted with students and parents have recorded very high levels of positive response about ‘PLUS’ (The Parkfield environmental education program) learning and excellent attitudes toward

sustainability have developed.”

Jack, a boy whose attitude toward the environment had improved markedly wrote “PLUS changes the way i think about the environment.”

ToP RiGHT: Ellensbrook Confluence (photo: Chris Gibbs)

ABoVE: Map with legend of activities

RiGHT: Walpole Primary activities (photo: Chris Gibbs)

sWcc’s coastal facilitators have driven over 14,000 km since july 2011 delivering this program and developing partnerships between youth groups and coastal community groups.

in this two year investment period, 2011-2013, this school and youth program delivered almost $33,000 of youth volunteering.

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SHIRE OF MANJIMUP

SHIRE OF NANNUP

SHIRE OF KOJONUP

SHIRE OF WILLIAMS

SHIRE OF WEST ARTHUR

SHIRE OF BOYUP BROOK

SHIRE OF COLLIE

CITY OF BUSSELTON

SHIRE OF MURRAY

SHIRE OF HARVEY

SHIRE OF WANDERING

SHIRE OF BODDINGTON

SHIRE OF DENMARK

SHIRE OF AUGUSTA-MARGARET RIVER

SHIRE OF CRANBROOK

SHIRE OF BROOKTON

SHIRE OF DONNYBROOK-BALINGUP

SHIRE OF CAPEL

SHIRE OF WAROONA

SHIRE OF CUBALLING

SHIRE OF PINGELLY

SHIRE OF DARDANUP

Legend" brushing

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a youth planting ±

Why do schools wish to be involved in an education and volunteering program such as this?

As part of its new national Curriculum statement, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority cites objectives such as “Students are active and informed citizens, they are responsible global and local citizens”.

“They volunteer to be active in the community, engage in activities to improve society, actively participate and/or actively engage in local restoration and rehabilitation programs.” Being active, involved and contributing citizens are core value overarching sentiments recommended in the new national Curriculum.

The Dune Dudes program addresses these wishes and sentiments directly.

in addition, the association of Dune Dudes with school programs helps up-skill their teachers about coastal environmental issues. indeed, teachers often say that they didn’t understand the scope of coastal issues until the various educational packages were delivered to their children by SWCC.

SWCC has delivered professional development workshops for teachers about the Dune Dudes program in Bunbury and Mandurah. SWCC has plans to extend this training into southern areas.

Experimental design, coastal processes, erosion, food chains and webs, effects of man on the environment, classifying and grouping, animal classification, environmental problem solving, indigenous coastal history, climate change, microscopy, feral organisms, marine debris and sustainable fishing are all topics covered by the program.

one primary school has developed imposing banners in their art program to advertise positive and responsible coastal behaviour. Another school is developing innovative coastal and educative theatre as a ‘kids teaching kids’ program about coastal issues as a result of their SWCC partnership.

Worksheets for students have been produced by Coastal Facilitators and will continue to be developed to help teachers and support the coastal issues program. These will be more closely tied to the national Curriculum over the next year.

Participating schools gain publicity in newspapers, the Department of Planning ‘Coastlines’, publication, radio and television through SWCC’s communication program with press releases and the like.

Parkfield Primary’s PLUS (Parkfield Learning for Understanding Sustainability) program has been very much in the news; on radio, newspaper, TV, and on the internet because of their partnership with SWCC and their school’s sustainability program.

over ten articles in newspapers together with two ‘Coastline’ magazine articles, one TV interview, two radio interviews and internet references to SWCC on the national Australia Bank site have all referred to the Dune Dudes youth program.

‘Certain Science’ curriculum and ‘Society and Environment’ curriculum aims are achieved through the incursions and excursions.

ABoVE: Chrish Gibbs with Maidens Park

Primary Dune Dudes (photo: Beren Spencer)

This project is supported by the South West Catchments Council, through funding from the Australian Government’s Program, Caring for our Country and the Government of Western Australia.

Printed on recycled carbon neutral paper

V01-JUnE2013

achievements

There are numerous long term outcomes but the immediate achievements of the engagement program from 2011-2013 have been:

27 schools and youth groups engaged

674 adults & 2931 children at festivals, incursions, excursions, camp sites and on- ground volunteering events.

929 youth & 233 teachers, parents and youth leader volunteers

57 events held

ABoVE: Parkfield Primary Dune Dudes

brushing at Hastie Street dune in Bunbury

(photo: Chris Gibbs)

What do teachers and youth leaders have to say about their involvement with the Dune Dudes program?

Teachers were asked what they most liked about the event after the Captain Coastcare and Dune Dude performance and related activities or after planting and on-ground working days that were linked to the Dune Dudes activities, and they wrote:

“Hands-on activities. Excellent vibrant presentation. Varied format followed by hands-on activities. i plan to become more involved in the environmental community”.

“Children were engaged the whole time. Kids loved the beach-combing. The whole event, everything. The way the children were fully immersed in learning. The humour helps. Dune model very hands on”.

“Children’s understanding enhanced. Small group activities enhanced more thorough understanding of the subtle but destructive impacts. Concrete models, hands on activities. Buster’s antics (Dune Dude’s dog). immediate hands-on application of knowledge”.

“Knowledge and enthusiasm of presenters. Clever and entertaining presentation. Children certainly engaged and responsive. Enthusiasm of presenters certainly engaged children.”