Tiger Tribe and local not-for-profit Earth Crusaders have teamed up to create a new sustainability incursion program for primary aged kids. Called The Place Where I Live, the incursion launched on the last weekend of the school holidays with a bunch of enthusiastic kids enjoying a series of free workshops at Melbourne’s CERES Community Environment Park.
Co-founders Gabbie Ciavarella, Belinda Attard and Lauren Colosimo formed Earth Crusaders after meeting at a local council sustainability program and were recent finalists in the Keep Victoria Beautiful (KVB) Sustainable Cities Awards.
“We’ve long wanted to develop a school incursion program that gets kids talking about living sustainably in our cities and as a community. When Tiger Tribe showed us their new Eco City product we were excited by its potential and jumped at the opportunity to collaborate and build a new workshop incorporating the activity set,” says Belinda.
Tiger Tribe developed Patternation Eco City magnetic activity set to help kids understand community-scale sustainability in a hands-on way.
“The challenge is to design a green city using magnetic tiles and incorporating eco-friendly elements such as community food gardens, renewable energy systems, emission free transport and recycling resources,” says Naomi Green, Tiger Tribe co-founder and head of product design.
“A key feature of Eco City is that it is an unplugged activity — it encourages kids to work collaboratively, to talk to each other and to think creatively. It’s a big topic for kids to wrap their heads around, so engagement is very important,” says Naomi.
The Place Where I Live incursion program explores how individual actions impact the suburb, city, country and planet where we live and is designed for primary school aged kids. The program supports Sustainability Inquiry units with focus on UN Sustainable Development (SDG) Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
“Our mission has always been to empower kids to be the change makers in their communities,” says Gabbie.
“The Eco City Patternation kit is such a great tool for kids to explore the complex concepts of building an eco city and we can’t wait to start sharing it with schools,” says Lauren.
Find out more about Patternation Eco City here
Primary school teachers (currently only in Victoria) can book The Place Where I Live incursion here
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