Julie Hill, Gemmah Wade and Holly Bowen-Sant.

“Environmental education for the early years should be based on a sense of wonder and joy of discovery” (Wilson, 1996)

Bottle tops

Team 7

Provocation

Provocation

Artwork made from reused bottle tops displayed to stimulate children's thinking and imagination.

A bottle top can represent many

things

Provocation

Children are provided with a rich normality of shop bought toys and reusable object that fit seamlessly into their play experiences.

Provocation

Recycled Materials

• Bottle tops

Additional resources provided to for children

Cardboard boxes, cereal boxes, egg cartons, pieces of flat cardboard, glue, bits of paper, playdough and plasticine, tape, collected natural object from the garden such as leaves, sticks and nuts, large shapes made from cardboard boxes, paper plates, old baby bath, straws, popsticks.

Where next?Whatever they want!

Indoor

Outdoor

Literacy

Numeracy

Creativity

A resource that stimulates children's thinking and

imagination

This quality area of the National Quality Standard focuses on the physical environment and ensuring that it is safe, suitable and provides a rich and diverse range of experiences that promote children’s learning and development.

Safety issues: Children may need to be reminded not to put in the mouth as it may pose a choking hazard.Sharp parts on bottom rim may need to be filed down to avoid cuts.Playing on non-slip mats indoors so the bottle tops do not spread all over the room and become a tips hazard. Bins containing the bottle tops have been placed in the shade to allow children the opportunity to spend long periods of time engaged without the exposure to the sun.Additionally for babies and toddlers - The small bottle tops will not be available in the baby area as they would be a choking hazard and will be closely supervised in the toddler area. Babies will be provided with bottle tops that a large so they can explore without the choking hazard.Where water is available children will be closely supervised and water levels will be adequate for exploration and investigation but low enough not to be a danger for young children.

Maintenance: Can be reused in various activities, easily cleaned and rather difficult to break or damage. Staff will regularly evaluate the use of the bottle tops in terms of their effectiveness in the indoor and outdoor areas and make adjustments according to their judgments (additional resources etc.).

Quality Area 3: Physical environment

Open-ended interactions:Epigenesis involves an environment that is flexible and manipulatable. It is open to change and modification by the children’s processes of self learning. (Ceppi, G. & Zini, M. 2001.) The use of bottle tops in a learning environment contributes to this ideas, as the possible uses and activities are endless, and children are encouraged to be creative in their use of bottletops.The provocation provides for a range of activities that promote learning in the mathematics, science, creativity, problem solving, literacy and communication.

Quality Area 3: Physical environment

Narration involves the visibility and transparency of the children’s processes of research and cognition, which can be achieved with our provocation by displaying its childrens products in and around the classroom. Children will be free to take their creations between the indoor and outdoor environments to explore and investigate their uses in a variety of ways.

Access- There is an abundance of bottle tops and recycling them would be great for the environment. The bottle tops are provided in storage containers that can be accessed by all the children. They are available to the children at low and medium heights to make it easy for all children to reach. The bottle tops are placed in various locations to stimulate children thinking about how they can be used in and with different objects and for different tasks.

Inclusive environment- All children can be involved in using bottle tops- does not require particular skills. All homes have bottle tops so all the children will have the opportunity to contribute to the collection of the bottle tops.

Community- Children might be encouraged to collect bottle tops for the learning environment at home including family members and friends. Artworks made with the bottle tops can be display in the centre/classroom and using photographs of the children at play can be inserted into learning stories so children can share their experiences with their family and friends.

Quality Area 3: Physical environment

Quality Area 3: Physical environment

Space: May be used indoors or outdoors and depending on the activity has the potential of utilising a small amount of space, or a large amount. Children can form small groups to play games or create artworks etc.

Multisensory - Our provocation provides a rich stimulus with various colour, size and textures. The creations of the children provide further stimulus of senses in the combination of the bottle tops with other objects, combining hard and soft, big and small, smooth and rough. All of these are investigated during the creating and the playing with the bottle tops.

Aesthetics- Varied shapes, size, colours and textures. Using collected bottle caps to create a whimsical arts and crafts the rooms take on an aesthetic beauty with colours splashed across walls and tables.

Relationship between environmental sustainability and learning environments

Sustainability is about the current and future challenges of maintaining and improving the quality of the natural environment as well as understanding our responsibilities toward it, our communities and our way of life now, and into the future.

Sustainable living requires not only scientific and technological solutions, but new social solutions and alternatives that blend science, sociology, psychology, health, economics, education, the arts and politics. (Davis. 2010)

People are now living in predominantly in cities. Environmental sustainability is about a “human system of community, relationship to each other and to place, to ideas and to actions, and these are slow to change” so it is important to introduce the issues of environmental sustainability to children in the early years and school. (Clarke, 2012)

Children are human “beings”, not human “becomings” and as such are already environmental stakeholders, who as both present and future citizens are affected by environmental decision making and have the right to be involved in it. Not only can young children learn about environmental issues’ they can and do take action to change their behaviours in both educational and home settings. (Davis. 2010).

Environmental education focuses on interactions and relationships between people and the effects on the environment and its functioning. It requires a deep understanding of ourselves, neighbours, societal and cultural processes and how we are connected with the ecological systems for life. It is based on the principles of critical inquiry, empowerment, participation, democratic decision making and taking action. (Davis. 2010)

Introducing young children to these issues will start the journey to what might be a “more sustainable future.” (Clarke, 2012) It is in the Early Childhood Years that the foundations are laid for the development of environmentally responsible adults and the learning environments should encourage such responsibility. (Davis and Elliott, 2004)

In these modern times of cities we have removed some of the basic life sources - food. There are no places where families grow food and in losing this we have lost the life that comes along with that, the biodiversity of insects, birds and plants (Wilson, 1991). We have lost our connection to nature and life (Clarke, 2012)

Environmental Education

There are some basic conditions which can provide a starting point for environmental sustainability.

•We need to establish the understanding of why and how we care for our planet, the only one we have.

•We need to understand the need to care for each other, so we can live harmoniously.

•We need to understand that there is a need to care for ourselves, which includes self-discipline to learn to have what we need and not always what we want: this means redesigning our consumption to meet the demands of the other two conditions. (Clarke, 2012)

Basic Conditions for Environmental Sustainability Education

We hold a responsibility to pass on to our children to necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to ensure they are both capable and competent to live their lives on earth in a responsible and caring manner.

Knowledge and understanding will come through a deep relationship with nature and with each other.Growing food can transform human relationships with place.•to establish new forms of creativity (from a physical relationship with the land through growing food to a conceptual understanding of how to establish sustainable productivity)•to the management of and enhancement of knowledge, design and management of growing spaces.•to the adoption of new governance models such as community interest groups.

Through this we learn to know how to nurture our growing produce, we develop conceptual understanding of our relationship to each other, and to the soil, water, plants, light, heat and the way they all combine to ensure that where we live is conducive to life. (Clarke, 2012)

Education for sustainable development is an inclusive approach including children's formal and informal learning. It is represented by four ideas (Scott and Gaugh, 2003):

•Learning to know•Learning to do•Learning to live together•Learning to be

It encourages project-based learning, multidisciplinary studies, role play, task-based learning and cross-disciplinary problem-solving. That it’s effectiveness lies in the practical application of children knowledge within a community of learners. One example of this is the Forrest Schools in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark where outdoor learning is emphasised.

The children at these schools were found to have fewer days of school, better concentration than city children, played for longer with less adult interruption and more considerate of each other. In later schooling these Forrest school children demonstrated stronger social skills, greater ability to work in groups, high self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities. (Clarke, 2012)

Modeling of environmental behaviours and attitudes by adults, as well as experiences in the natural environment are important in young children’s development of environmental concerns as well as an appreciation for it. Young children can become cares of the earth and through education can come to understand the ecological and social implications of our interference with the natural systems of our planet. Through education children can become empowered to act on behalf of themselves and others to create a sustainable environment. (Campbell & Jobling. 2012)

Modeling sustainability appears to be one effective way to achieve the goals of sustainability education. Research has shown that modeling can be an effective way to teach knowledge, skills and behaviours, motivate students to learn and help them to develop values. Modelling can considerably shorten and improve learning and imitative behaviours, particularly when students are exposed to multiple models. (Higgs and McMillan, 2006)

Teaching Environmental Sustainability through Modeling

Individual models such as teacher and other students:•carpooling, biking or walking to school•eating organic, local foods with minimal disposable waste•wearing second hand clothes•participating in community services•composting, recycling and reusing•picking up litter•turning off lights when leaving a room•promoting democratic classroom environments•using appropriate conflict resolution strategies•encouraging diverse and divergent opinions

Research has shown that students model sustainable practices for other students, teachers model for other teachers and students model for teacher. (Higgs and McMillan, 2006)

Individuals as Models

School facilities as a model:•creating there own energy, solar heating and wind generators•establishing wetland areas that process all waste water•collecting and storing rainwater•enabling passive cooling of buildings using indoor plants

Students and faculty serve as the school caretakers, cleaning and collecting the rubbish, recycling, tending the gardens, composting, preparing food and caring for the schools animals. Each student has a responsibility to do 30 minutes of chores a day. By modeling sustainable practice it reduces the need to preach to students. (Higgs and McMillan, 2006)

School Facilities as a Model

School culture: the pattern of shared assumptions, values, beliefs and norms of behaviour that is considered valuable and is taught to all members of the group. School culture is learned through the rituals, traditions, buildings, programs, instructional methods and activities within the school. Schools can foster a culture of sustainability through traditions such as whole school morning exercise, participation in sporting events as a group, rituals that promote teamwork, perseverance and a connection to nature.

Modeling can help students transfer the concepts of sustainability from abstract ideas to personal and tangible application. One would expect that students seeing sustainable practices first hand will be better prepared to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. To shape a more sustainable world young people need models of sustainability that they can emulate. (Higgs and McMillan, 2006)

Modeling and School Culture

• provide learning activities for them investigate sustainability issues in their home, school and community•support students to develop and implement sustainability solutions or•create opportunities to develop and demonstrate environmental citizenship and leadership.

Sustainability can be used as a context for student learning, engagement, leadership and increasing community participation. Sustainability and environmental education programs in schools have the potential to improve student environmental understanding and awareness through resource use and management, and, well designed environments in and around the schools. (NSW Department of Education and Training. 2011)

•engage young people in the activities that help them explore and understand their environment

Our Classrooms Should:

Reflection

Working with different people provides the opportunity to look at things from different perspectives. Learning has been both a process and the result of questioning, interpreting and analysing information. Using the information and our thinking processes to develop, build and alter our meaning and understanding of concepts and ideas. Integrating current experiences with our past experiences and what we already know about the given subject. Constructivism, is about constructing knowledge, not receiving it. (Marlowe and Page, 1998) Julie

This assignment has allowed me to work within a group dynamic and has helped me to discover different ways of thinking about things. I was provided with the opportunity to develop my knowledge and skills with using IT, especially google docs. I feel by having this new knowledge I will be able to complete future assignments with much more confidence. By observing how the other group members work and by listening to their thoughts and ideas I was able to develop my understanding on the topic and construct new knowledge, meaning and understanding. Holly

Working within a group provides a challenge for me as I am more comfortable working alone, in my own time, but it is necessary to step out of ones comfort zone to discover different perspectives and build on each other's knowledge. Although group work may be challenging, I feel the final product is almost always better as it's made up of collective knowledge and research; three heads are better than one. I know the IT aspect of this assignment will help me in future assignments and work. Gemmah

References

Images

Photographs used with permission from Julie Dawn Hill

http://octaviaandvicky.com/learn/bottle-top-play

http://www.sodahead.com/living/do-you-recycle-your-bottle-caps-lids-and-tops/question-875745/?link=ibaf&q=&esrc=s

http://www.sunhatsandwellieboots.com/2012/12/creating-shapes-with-plastic-bottle-tops.html

http://earth911.com/news/2012/03/08/plastic-bottle-caps-recycling/

http://battlethebottlecaps.wordpress.com/category/bottle-caps-2/

http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/05/10/sorting-colours-with-bottle-tops/

http://www.chardbaptist.org.uk/?attachment_id=215

http://learnbuzz.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/orangutans-our-bottle-top-art-day-1.html

http://myzerowaste.com/2011/10/5-ways-to-recycle-plastic-milk-bottle-tops/

Music

Created and performed by Stephen Hill.

Music used with the permission of Stephen Hill.

Literature

Campbell, C., & Jobling, W. (2012). Science in Early Childhood. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ceppi, G., & Zini, M. (1998). Children, spaces, relations : metaproject for an environment for young children. Washington: Reggio Children.

Clarke, P. (2012). Education for Sustainability: Becoming naturally smart. London: Routledge.

Davis, J. M., & Elliott, S. (2004). Mud pies and daisy chains: Connecting young children and nature. Every Child, 10(4), 4-5.

Davis, M. D. (2010). Young Children and The Environment: Early education for sustainability. Victoria: Cambridge University Press.

Higgs, A. L., & McMillan, V. M. (2006). Teaching Through Modeling. The Journal of Environmental Education, 38(1), 39-53.

NSW Department of Education and Training. (2011). Environmental Education. Retrieved from Department of Education and Communities: http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/env_ed/index.htm

Scott, W., & Gough, S. (2003). Sustainable Development and Learning: Framing the issues. London: Taylor and Francis.

Wilson, E. O. (1991). The Diversity of Life. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

Wilson, R. (1996). Starting Early: Environmental education during the early childhood years.