Catchment Care Let's Get Started

Like ‘Water ~ Learning and Living’, the ‘Catchment Care’ resource contains Key Messages that form a framework through which educators can focus on each topic. These key messages can be promoted through the development of the four Sustainability Outcomes listed on the right hand side of the tables below. To achieve each of the outcomes, a series of Themes are recommended. Each of these themes includes Resource, Activity and Who Can Help tables.

Selected resources are listed under topics and organized into levels of complexity to assist the educator in selecting material appropriate to the level of study. The Activity tables are organized in Bands (year levels) to complement developmental phases of the learner. The ‘Who Can Help’ tables are linked to the Contact Resource List which contains email addresses and web sites of organizations that are involved in the provision of information and assistance for school aged children.

Catchment Care Start contains the following themes:
	• Understanding Catchments • Understanding Ecosystems • Human Impacts on Catchments • Taking Action to Manage Catchments (Biodiversity)

To build the skills, knowledge and values for a sustainable future, the SACSA Framework uses five Essential Learnings that represent developmental dispositions, knowledge and skills of our young.

Click here to see how the Essential Learnings can be developed through 'Water ~ Learning and Living' and ‘Catchment Care’.

‘Catchment Care’ also includes Taking Action tables which provide guidance for educators and students to engage in activities at home, school, and in the community that will help protect biodiversity and catchments. There is also a section about adopting a patch.

'Catchment Care' also includes additional Activity tables that contain descriptions of different activities linked to bands and contacts for further information in the Northern Adelaide and Barossa, Onkaparinga, Torrens and Patawalonga Catchment Board areas.

This section contains detailed curriculum sheets as a resource for those educators who wish to delve deeper into linking Our Patch/Catchment Care activities into the curriculum. The sheets outline selected elements of the SACSA framework that can be met by participating in the Our Patch/Catchment Care program in a range of Learning Areas, and there may be many more. It is envisaged that many educators involved in Our Patch/Catchment Care will develop new strategies for approaching the educational tasks, and these detailed curriculum sheets provide a guide as to where these strategies may fit into the curriculum.

Included in this resource are a series of case studies that provide real examples of how Our Patch/Catchment Care is integrated into schools in the Northern Adelaide and Barossa, Onkaparinga, Torrens and Patawalonga Catchment Boards.

Download the report to see these case studies ‘Working with Our Patch/Catchment Care in Schools’ (161KB – PDF Download Instructions).

Including topics such as:

Sustainability Outcomes

• What is a catchment?

          • Activities to help learn about catchments
          • Who Can Help?

• The Water Cycle

          • Activities to help learn about catchments

• Healthy catchments: What makes it healthy?

          • Water Quality
          • Water Quantity
          • Biodiversity
          • Activities to help learn about what makes catchments healthy
          • Who Can Help?

Encyclopaedia of Water Terms
http://www.tec.org/tec/tec/terms2.html

Students develop understandings of how a catchment functions and the critical role of water in its processes

Including topics such as:

Sustainability Outcomes

• What is an ecosystem?

          • Activities to help learn about ecosystems
          • Who Can Help?

• What are ecosystem services?

• Biodiversity: What is it and why do we value it?

          • Activities to help learn about biodiversity
          • Who Can Help?

• Vegetation: The value of native vegetation

• Inland fresh water ecosystems, including wetlands, creeks
and river habitats

          • Activities to help learn about inland freshwater ecosystems
          • Who Can Help?

• Coast and marine ecosystems

          • Activities to help learn about estuarine/coastal and marine             ecosystems
          • Who Can Help?

• Bioindicators: Macroinvertebrates, frogs and others

          • Activities to help learn about and monitor bioindicators
          • Who Can Help?

• Monitoring the environment

Students develop understandings of the function and complexity of natural ecosystems and the critical role of water in its processes

Including topics such as:

Sustainability Outcomes

• Indigenous management of catchments: An historical perspective

• Overview of post European development impacts in urban
and rural Australia

• Look at issues such as:
          • Changed land use
          • Land management impacts (degradation) including salinity,             sediment and nutrient pollution
          • Exotic (pest) plant introduction and invasion
          • Exotic (pest) animal introduction and invasion

• Some big problems:
          • Threatened species
          • Salinity
          • Flows
          • Vegetation clearance
          • Algal Blooms

Students develop an understanding of the impacts and consequences that human activity can have on catchment functioning

Including topics such as:	Sustainability Outcomes
• What can we all do to protect and restore our Catchments? • In the Home • At our School • In the Community • By Adopting a Patch	Students become empowered to work towards preferred sustainable futures