RCE Greater Western Sydney-2012

rce_proj_title
Submitted by RCEgscott on Tue, 2012-08-28 00:00
1. General Information
Contact Name(s): 
Zhan Patterson
Helen Angelakis
Organizational Affiliation : 
Hawkesbury Environment Network
University of Western Sydney
Role in the project: 
Coordinator
Assistant (event organisation)
E-Mail Address(es): 
zhan@ecoeducation.net.au
h.angelakis@uws.edu.au
Project-relevant information: 
http://www.hen.org.au/alive
http://www.facebook.com/AliveHEN
http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/343906/About_Alive!_for_RCE.pdf_HEN.pdf.
2. Project Information
1. Project title: 
Alive!
2. Project Description: 
Alive! engages young people in the Hawkesbury Region of Western Sydney, Australia through empowering them to identify and address a local environmental issue. This project is innovative and unique as the environmental issues that the young people work on are identified by them. This allows young people to have ownership and to actively develop short term and long term solutions to the issue with university student mentoring. Alive! is strongly underpinned by the development of networks, partnerships and relationships which enable the work developed through the project to continue and be actively supported.
A planning day was held on World Environment Day 2012 with 260 students in 12 schools from 1 Local Government Area in Greater Western Sydney involved. Communication Arts Students from UWS are invovled in making a documentary of the inititative and UWS Hawkesbury Sustainability Collective students are involved as peer mentors.
3. Project Status: 
Ongoing
4. Key Words
Key Words: 
Biodiversity
Other: 
Engagement, teaching; youth
5. Project categories
Project categories: 
Education
Awareness building
Networking and partnership development
6. Expected outcomes:: 
The Alive! project aims to:
1. Create awareness of local environmental issues amongst young people in the Hawkesbury Local Government Area of Sydney, Australia and to empower them to address a selected issue;
2. Skill and train young people to
a) identify a key environmental for them to address;
b) plan and implement a project to addess the issue in a creative, innovative way and then to ommunicate it to the public
d) evaluate and share the outcomes of the project , especially via the use of innovative teachnology.
7. Duration of the Project:: 
03/2012 - 03/2013
3. Project Leadership & Vision
8. Project coordination (e.g. teams): 
Hawkesbury Environment Network is the team leader
9. Leadership structure
a. Administration: 
6
b. Transactional: 
2
c. Transformational: 
2
4. Project results
10. Project results : 
5th June 2012 - World Environment Day : 260 students attended UWS for an Alive! planning day with representatives from:UWS School of Communication Arts, Hawkesbury Sustainability Collective; WSI TAFE; NSW National Parks and Wildlife; Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority, Wildlife Rescue Emergency Services; Hawkesbury City Council; Hawkesbury Earthcare Centre; Parramatta Climate Action Network; Bass Sydney and Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) . 12 projects across 10 schools and 2 Girl Guide groups have now been funded and are in the implementation phase.
11. Contribution to reforms and innovations: 
The environmental issues chosen for this project are those which are most pressing in the local Hawkesbury area. Key to the success of this project is that the identification of these issues will come from the youth of the Hawkesbury, guided and influenced through local youth leaders, teachers and mentors. This project is innovative and unique as the environmental issues that the youth work on will be identified by them and therefore also allows young people to take ownership and develop solutions to the issue on both a long-term and short -tem scale.
12. Unexpected / unplanned results: 
1. Additional schools' engagement speakers 2. Further funding being sought for a community screening of the project. 3. The ripple effect with large numbers of parents and teachers coming on board 4. Consistently positive publicity
13.Core Partners: 
Hawkesbury Environment Network; NSW Department of Education; Communities public schools in the Hawkesbury Region LGA and UWS Office of Sustainability
5. Partnership and networking
14. Project Network
a. Information network: 
2
b. Knowledge network: 
6
c. Innovation network: 
2
6. Participation
15. Type of involvement: 
Partners may participate in the project as guest speakers.
16. Participation opportunities
a. Informational participation: 
1
b. Consultation participation: 
3
c. Decision influencing participation : 
6
7. Education & Learning
17. Educational activities: 
Projects - Student groups work on a number sustainability projects - these working groups inspire and empower their fellow students to drive sustainable changes within their schools. Learning is active, problem-based, solution oriented and supported via peer mentoring from older, university students studying the area.
18. Learning activities: 
The planning day was evaluated by student surveys. Student groups are mentored by Zhan Patterson throughout the year. Reflection on experience will be fostered through the use of the video being created on each group's sustainability action project.
19. Educational activities
a. Theory: 
2
b. Discussion: 
2
c. Interactive and Multidimensional "action oriented education": 
6
8. Research Integration
20. Research & Development (R&D): 
A Teacher@sustainability pilot built into the Alive! project has identified a number of place-based sites in the GWS which will be used for teacher professional learning on sustainability and as a learning resource for use with their students by adopting a 'teachers as researcher' approach.
21. Research partners: 
UWS, Brewongle Environmental Education Centre - NSW Department of Education and Communities and relevant UWS staff.
22. Description of research
a. Disciplinary: 
1
b. Interdisciplinary: 
4
c. Transdisciplinary: 
5
Type: 
Project Reports
Region: 
Asia-Pacific
Community: 
Teacher Education
Community_second: 
Youth
Issue: 
Transformitive Learning
One More Issue: 
Teacher Education and Better Schools
Country: 
Australia