Two-way science at Watiyawanu Kuula: collecting, identifying a classifying local plants and how they survive
Introduction
Mt Liebig School is a Northern Territory government school located in a remote community 325 km west of Alice Springs on the traditional lands of the Pintupi-Luritja people. It has an enrolment of 60 students, of whom 100% are Aboriginal.
The school is participating in CSIRO's Science Pathways for Indigenous Communities Indigenous STEM Education Project, through the Tangentyere Council and funded by the BHP foundation. Students learn science that links Aboriginal ecological knowledge through on-Country and classroom projects to the Australian Curriculum: Science. This approach to teaching is referred to as Two-way Science and provides a context for delivering the Australian Curriculum: Science.
In this illustration, Years 3 to 6 students learn to recognise plants from a number of habitats near their community. They learn the Luritja names and traditional uses of these plants. They learn that the plants can be grouped in particular ways, and that Western science and Luritja ecological knowledge groupings are different. Students learn how to collect and label pressed specimens of plants for an herbarium and begin to understand how plant adaptations have helped them survive in their environment.
At Mt Liebig, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures CCP is integral to everything they do. For the purposes of the teaching and learning that takes place in this illustration, the following Organising Ideas are the main focus:
OI3: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have holistic belief systems and are spiritually and intellectually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
OI5: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
The following information identifies the various activities in the school’s learning program. Each of the activities (in bold) relates to a relevant General Capability/ies followed by the key idea/s.
Intercultural Understanding
Students learning the names of plants in both languages
Interacting and emphasising | Communicate across cultures
- recognise there are similarities and differences in the ways people communicate, both within and across cultural groups (Level 3)
- identify factors that contribute to understanding in intercultural communication and discuss some strategies to avoid misunderstanding (Level 4)
Critical and Creative thinking
Students exploring the plants in the local area
Inquiring - identifying, exploring, and organising information and ideas | Identify and clarify information and ideas
- identify main ideas and select and clarify information from a range of sources (Level 3)
- identify and clarify relevant information and prioritise ideas (Level 4)
Students sorting the plants back in the classroom
Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures | Draw conclusions and design a course of action
- draw on prior knowledge and use evidence when choosing a course of action or drawing a conclusion (Level 3)
- scrutinise ideas or concepts, test conclusions and modify actions when designing a course of action (Level 4)
- How can Aboriginal peoples’ interaction with the environment, such as through ecological practices, provide real world, hands-on experiences for students? How could this be applied/adapted to, for example, urban schools?
- How are the teachers connecting ‘bush’ learning with classroom learning?
- This illustration of practice demonstrates learning with Aboriginal students. In what ways could non-Indigenous students benefit from this type of learning?
- Two-way science plants unit
- Mt Liebig worksheets
- Yara Watiya Tjutatjarra – plant activities
- CSIRO Science Pathways for Indigenous Communities: https://www.csiro.au/en/Education/Programs/Indigenous-STEM/Science-Pathways
- CSIRO Indigenous STEM Education Project: https://www.csiro.au/en/Education/Programs/Indigenous-STEM. (Science Pathways for Indigenous Communities is part of the broader CSIRO Indigenous STEM Education Project delivered by CSIRO and funded by the BHP Foundation.)
