In April of this year Natura Education had the pleasure of attending the Australian Association for Environmental Education Expo. The conference was held at the Arts and Ecology Centre at the Maroochy Botanic Gardens in Tanawha and was a spectacular location to display and showcase the beauty of the local environmental and how to engage children with it. Displays and information were on show from environmental educators, organisations and groups from all parts of the community, and it was fantastic to see the variety of education programs and enthusiasm for getting their message out there all in one place!
The day started with a ‘Welcome to Country’ and some wonderful stories that told us more about the links that exist between the land and the native animals that live there. The story about the running of the mullet was great! Meanwhile the local kookaburras looked on in amazement at all the action going on in their normally peaceful gardens.
There were some other wildlife visitors to the gardens too but these ones came along with us to help spread to word about the environmental education programs that Natura Education can provide to the community. Our team were happy to introduce our native animal friends to interested expo attendees, and many came over to meet the young saltwater crocodile as well as the other snakes, geckoes and frogs that had come along to say ‘hello’.
There was a lot of interest in Natura Education’s early childhood programs, which are available to early learning centres and kindergartens, as these shows provide wonderful hands-on learning opportunities for children to learn all about their natural environment and how we can all help to care for it and live more sustainably. Our Natura Education team were very excited to be able to share our incursion programs with the teachers and schools that were attending the expo. We gained some really positive responses from other educators that were keen to make use of a hands-on interactive environmental experience for their students without the costs and hassles associated with an excursion.
Our team truly enjoyed our visit to the beautiful Sunshine Coast and would like to thank the Australian Association for Environmental Education for the opportunity to attend. The day was a fantastic opportunity to meet other educators and environmental organisations and learn all about the tremendous work that they are all doing. It was great to be working side-by-side with programs such as Bottle to Botol, Full Tide, Kids in Action, Healthy Waterways, Small Green Steps, Our Earth Oceans and You, just to name a few. We hope to see you again soon!
