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Helena Nicholson, leading school and community initiatives in sustainability education
I am currently employed as a Digital Technology teacher Year 1-6 and coordinate STEM education and Sustainability at Dunsborough Primary School. Previously I taught Drama and Media Arts for many years developing confidence in students and giving them the opportunity to participate in whole school community Musical performances. I have developed and led whole school and community initiatives in sustainability education, the Arts and STEM education in Regional Western Australia for over 20 years. In the past 15 years at Dunsborough Primary I have had great impact in the sustainability education of the whole school community. 9 years of Annual Bay OK Day whole school environmental, science and marine education Excursion (750 + providers and community), 12 years of Active Transport Walking School Bus, 11 Years Waterwise, 11 Years Waste Wise, Solar Schools Project, 4 Sustainability Expos at Centrepoint Shopping Centre, developed an outdoor classroom, Science in the Veggie Garden, Chooks, Compost and a seasonal frog habitat. I manage the school partnership with Dunsborough Coast and Land Care to improve biodiversity, protecting the critically endangered western ringtail possum, and through revegetation of the Blythe Reserve and other locations. In 2019 I added soft plastics recycling to our regime and significantly reduced our landfill. In teaching digital technology I use the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals as an underlying context for project work where students create digital solutions to real problems using robotics and coding applications. Students share their learning and develop an increased global awareness through these projects. In 2020 my involvement in the new Dunsborough Djiljit Mia Aboriginal Themed Nature Based Gathering Place saw me work with the local custodians to determine culturally sensitive, appropriate reconciliation outcomes to be achieved through the project. These included acknowledgement of people place and country, caring for country through revegetating the adjacent Brook and 'Wongi' sharing stories. Students are contributing to the revegetation element which will help connect them to the place and its purpose.
