Central West CMA and Meadow Flat Public School
Since 2009, the Central West Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has been running Enviro-Stories across their catchment. They have managed to produce 25 books in that time.
The Central West CMA’s Education Officer and project coordinator, Liz Davis, said “What you see with the children in this program is a greater understanding of their local area and the issues that our natural resources are facing today.”
“The children start to become more aware locally and understand more about the different species in their area that they should be keeping on eye on, ” Ms Davis said.
Meadow Flat Public School
The Years 3 to 6 children from Meadow Flat Public School near Bathurst wrote a book about the local threatened species, the purple copper butterfly, which has been published by the Central West Catchment Management Authority (CMA).
Students learnt about endangered species, covering Key Learning Areas, were involved in a video conference with Taronga Zoo and worked with local experts to find out more about the Purple Copper Butterfly.
Meadow Flat Public School Principal, Michael Wood, said children completed all research for the book. They also had a video conference with staff from Taronga Western Plains Zoo about the importance of endangered species locally and internationally. More importantly, the children chose a species they had learnt was only found in the Bathurst, Meadow Flat, Lithgow and Oberon area.
Mr Wood said his school has always had a strong environmental focus. “This project was fantastic in that the children were able to learn about endangered species across a number of key learning areas,” he said. “Seeing the children’s learning come alive was important. To see them take the project on with such enthusiasm was very pleasing to me as a teacher.”
This wasn’t the first time that Meadow Flat Public School had been involved in Enviro-Stories. Orlagh Fitzgerald, grade 4 student, was fortunate to get her book “Life on the Farm” published in the 2012 “Our Farmers, Our Future” program.
To learn more about the project and hear from the students and principal, listen and watch what has been said…
Radio Interview with 2BS, Bathurst
Central West CMA Case Study