The story so far - we reflect on the culturally-situated approach to developing resilience, our achievements to date, our findings, and what’s next for the project.
Our initial objectives and impacts where presented as follows;
Raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and the project
Engage with a long-standing knowledge network
Developing place-based curriculum
Transition 1 Community and Transition Programme delivery – over 6 mths
Transition 2 Community and Transition Programme delivery – over 9 months
Project Outputs
Rapid Media and repair cafe co-op lab and team
Best Practice Guidelines, Toolkit and CPD curriculum for education and community development
Toolkit launch and tour
Direct Engagement: 110 people actively engaged in commons-based youth / community transition SDGs. Indirect Engagement: 600 online project connections Academic engagement: Conference attendance – 4 conferences x 2 papers audience approx: 50 = 400 Online dissemination: Network and Academia and Research Gate approx: 2000
For our first six months we concentrated on our initial three aims by undertaking a series of outreach and engagement activities, on and offline, to build our audience, develop our partnerships and our draft curriculum.
We are pleased to say, we are on target but still need to build our audience and participants to reach our targets by the end of the project in Jan 2020. This first phase was critical to the success of the next phase of the project and the implementation of our proposed Community and Transition programme delivery.
The CoDesRes team have been implementing the pCr method within the phase one activities and have used these to develop community activities, that will help share the pCr method and a place-based STEAM curriculum for Transition Year with adaptations for different educational levels.
Community Activities
The communities activities have been developed using the pCr method to begin to engage with SDG 11, 14 and 15 and includes three projects starting in August 2018, StoryBank and Waste2Taste. In addition, in partnership with SeaSynergy and supported by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) the Marine Institute, the team will be working on a Net Re-use project and will work with Water and Communities and Waterville Lakes and Rivers Trust to deliver an event Sensing the Coomeragh Catchment, as part of the Heritage week.
StoryBank: Stories of the past, told today for the people of tomorrow
Storybank will save the knowledge of the past’s making and mending, sharing the skills and knowledge that could contribute to a more sustainable future. Storybank looks at the heritage of sustainable practices on the Iveragh Peninsula by gathering the innovation and the ‘make-do and mend’ ethos that is still within living memory. The project will gather stories on these themes through specially designed ‘storybanks’ that recycle plastic bottles that carry a message or story. These will form the basis of an exhibition and digitally archive.
Waste2Taste: is the development of an edible / medicinal horticultural sculpture trail that integrates augmented reality to to share the story of natural and cultural heritage of the area. proposes the development of a sculptural / horticultural trail that runs runs the length of Cahersiveen town starting and finishing with two landmarks: Coláiste na Sceilge to the newly reconstructed Saidbh’s Fort, behind the Old Barracks Cultural Centre.
BIM Net-Reuse: In collaboration with Sea Synergy, the CoDesRes team and additional expertise from Damian Foxall and Alex Crowley will explore, with the fishing communities of the Iveragh Peninsula, the design and development of prototypes for net re-use. The BIM Net re-use project begins to consider the the three-fold problem of synthetic nets;
deterioration limits their use yet creates a critical waste management problem as they do not breakdown and up-cycling can cause micro-plastics to enter the system.
the production of fishing nets is intensive e.g. industrial weaving and spinning, involves water and energy use as well as contributing to greenhouse gases.
640,000 metric tons has been reported as contributing to the capture or killing of 136,000 sea lions and whales (Healthy Seas 2016).
Sensing the Cummeragh Catchment - The theme for Heritage week this year is Share a story and make a connection and we thought this would be an ideal opportunity to explore the natural heritage of our local lakes, rivers and coastal areas. This will take the form of a sensory conversation and you can read a short article in July's South Kerry Advertiser, on our publication's page. To read please click on the link and scroll down to the press features and click on our team member, Eleanor Turner's beautiful image of Lough Derriana, and the starting point of our sensory conversation.
These projects will also enable the community activities to be further utilised for Transition Year involvement and a place-based STEAM curriculum.
Developing a place-based STEAM curriculum
'STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking. The end results are students who take thoughtful risks, engage in experiential learning, persist in problem-solving, embrace collaboration, and work through the creative process. These are the innovators, educators, leaders, and
learners of the 21st Century' The Education Closet, 2018
Part of our programme delivery is exploring the development of place-based Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM) learning interventions as a means to contributing to Co-Designing for Resilience. In STEAM (Maeda, 2010) education, learning occurs at the intersection of the five fields, transforming how we know and investigate the world. As a pedagogical innovation, the STEAM agenda offers an approach to teaching and learning ‘that encourages and facilitates unorthodox methods and strategies’ (Rose and Smith, 2011, 8).
Critical thinking, inquiry and process-based learning are all foundational aspects of STEAM and encourage deep questioning through activities that engage with with two or more aspects from the STEAM acronym but one of them always an arts subject e.g. music, dance, visual arts, design, literature. This approach promotes the creative risk-taking and exploratory processes inherent in art and design training and disciplines within the STEM fields.
To date the team have developed draft versions of activities and curriculum which will be iterated through CoDesRes starting in Aug. 2018 and running throughout the year – Aug. 2019. This includes;
SDGs awareness and dissemination
Narrative Design thinking and adaptation challenge for SDG 14 and 15 adaptation for temperature, food sources, weather etc – different levels
Systems and bio-diversity – early learning
A thematic TY curriculum adapted by L Hunt from her Volvo Ocean race curriculum
. Bio-mimcry, design thinking and waste – Transition Year
. Integrated Beach Clean and plastic waste mapping project – Transition Year
. Waste as resource design challenge and puppet making for SDG dissemination
W2T and Storybank community arts themed engagement – different levels, formal and informal learning
SDG 15 Pollinators, puppet workshop and puppet show
We also have plans to develop a STEAM club aimed at older teens encouraging their exploration of self-initiated project based learning.
References:
The Education Closet, 2018 https://educationcloset.com/steam/what-is-steam/
Mackin, L (2015) The new Steam age: the role of the arts in Ireland’s future, The Irish Times Dec 12th 2015 available here https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/the-new-steam-age-the-role-of-the-arts-in-ireland-s-future-1.2463102 accessed 11th April 2015
Maeda, L. T. J.:Innovation is born when art meets science The Guardian 13th Nov 2010 Available online https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/nov/14/my-bright-idea-john-maeda Accessed: 11th April 2015
Rose, C and Smith, B. (2011) Workshop: Bridging STEM to STEAM: Developing New Frameworks for Art/Science Pedagogy Rhode Island School of Design, Jan 2011
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