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Garden Route Environmental Education Network |
By Lorraine McGibbon, Garden Route Environmental Education Network (GREEN)
 Some months ago, a newsletter about environmental documentaries being shown in Cape Town caught my eye. My immediate reaction was that those of us along the Cape south coast were going to lose out. A couple of phone calls and e-mails later, I was quite caught up in the excitement of offering to show a selection of these documentaries to the public as well as to schools in George.
As the coordinator of the Garden Route Environmental Education Network (GREEN), I wanted to make these environmental documentaries available to both teachers and learners as well as the field rangers, community conservation officers and other conservation educators. GREEN was launched in 2001 with the aim of bringing together teachers and service providers to share our resources and learn from each other.
The early years were spent in getting to grips with the curriculum. The local curriculum advisor for biology and agricultural sciences joined us for several sessions. To put into practice our increased understanding of the curriculum statements, we visited a different service provider’s place of work each quarter. He or she then took the group through the organisation’s programme. This was followed by working together in smaller groups and brainstorming ideas for incorporating our new understanding of that topic or issue and outdoor experience into lesson plans for the different phases and different learning areas. While the teachers found this very useful, the service providers gained insight into what was required by the teachers and were able to improve upon their own programmes as well as build up ideas for lesson planning for future school visits.
I saw the Earthnotes documentaries as another ‘tool’ for local conservation educators to find out more about environments and global environmental issues. My focus is on local ecosystems and issues affecting us but which also address the global situation. I therefore selected the documentaries which would address these needs as well as support teachers and learners in life sciences (biology) and geography. I chose to watch all eleven DVDs before screening them. This enabled me to create a programme for both the public and the high schools and advise the teachers on topics and issues covered in the documentaries.
I felt that certain documentaries would be very relevant to the type of environmental issues facing us. With this in mind, I chose to show A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil, Farming the Seas, Crude Impact and A World without Water. Although the public screenings were poorly attended, the subjects really got the audience talking and planning. Time and again the first comment made was “has the municipality seen this?”. The south Cape coast remains under siege with on-going golf course and polo field development as well as housing estates. The conservation-minded residents keep asking from where the water is supposed to come. We are aware that most SA rivers are under threat.
In selecting documentaries to show at the schools, my decision was based on relevance to the life sciences and geography curricula in particular. The choice also had to catch and hold the attention of high school learners. School periods are about 50 minutes in length and this had to be taken into account. We dealt with this in different ways. The private school had more leeway and was able to book a 1 or 2 hour session for either all the learners or the life science learners. Another high school chose to show sections of certain documentaries, allowing time for discussion in between. Documentaries such as Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, Vanishing Waters and Knysna, the Embattled Estuary were chosen to illustrate ecosystem interrelatedness, plant and animal adaptations and man’s influence on natural resources.
The documentaries are excellent; the topics addressed, very relevant. Notwithstanding the fact that the public screenings were poorly attended, I would like to offer these for viewing again next year. Advertising needs to go out not just in the press but in Newsletters in both English and Afrikaans. Arrangements need to be made for suitable venues long in advance. I would encourage interest groups to get together and to watch the documentaries in a less formal setting – perhaps around a light meal. The schools would benefit more from seeing 1 or 2 relevant documentaries at the time that that section of the curriculum is covered.
For more information about GREEN, please contact Lorraine McGibbon at wessa.sc@mweb.co.za.
The photo shows Holy Cross Primary's grade 4 Weedbuster Group, ready to remove black wattles and replant indigenous forest trees like Cape Ash and Yellowwood on an island in the Garden Route dam, as part of the International Coastal Cleanup day.
About Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem:
Taking us through striking landscapes above and underwater, this short film explains the importance of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) for the three countries that border this region - South Africa, Namibia and Angola.
Credits: Francois Odendaal & Claudio Velásquez 2004 South Africa 20min
About Knysna, the Embattled Estuary:
This film is a trip through one of the biggest and most biologically productive estuaries on South Africa’s coast, illustrating interesting facts about estuarine systems. A film from 1989, it provides a good basis to think about the pressures we have been putting on this system in the last decades.
Credits: Neil Curry 1989 South Africa 40min
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